The men’s and women’s cross country teams took to Branch Brook Park in Newark to race at the METs Championships, hosted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) on Oct. 12.
The men placed sixth overall and the women took home eighth, the teams collecting 147 points and 141 points, respectively.
Junior Ryan Pena took fifth overall, clocking in at 23.39.6. The rest of the men set new personal bests in the 8k. Sophomore Brandon Meneses finished at 27:09.1 while sophomore Julian Mignone clocked in at 27:28.3.
“It felt rewarding knowing that the training I put in during the summer and currently is paying off,” Meneses said in an interview with The Ramapo News. “For the next meet, I am hoping to attain another new personal best.”
Freshman James Brill ran a time of 27:59.3, breaking his personal record by two minutes. Sophomore Jose Espinal and freshman Nico Tucci earned their new personal bests with times of 28:03.8 and 28:05.5, respectively.
For the women, sophomore superstar Dale Leonard was the first Roadrunner to cross the finish line with a time of 18:22. Overall, Leonard earned seventh place, which is very impressive considering the other racers are DI compared to Ramapo being DIII.
The rest of the women also set new personal bests. In the 5k, Senior Zoey Cassavell came in second for the Roadrunners and 16th overall at 18:50.4. Sophomore Zoe Gregory clocked in at 19:58.8, freshman Elena Guzman at 20:19.7 and junior Frankie Cartagena at 20:24.8.
“It has been exciting to see how much progress the team has made over the past several weeks,” Leonard said. “I am looking forward to seeing what everyone can accomplish this upcoming weekend.”
“The team has been putting in a ton of work this season, which I think will really pay off at the NJAC championship in a few weeks from now,” she continued.
The next meet will be on Oct. 19 at 11 a.m., where the Roadrunners will compete in the Border Battle hosted by Rowan University.
ajones11@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
