Burklow Helps Men to 3rd Place Finish

This weekend the men's team competed at the Hood College Open against mostly Division III schools. This is the 3rd year the team has traveled to Frederick, MD to compete at the Hood College Open. In the previous 2 years the team took 5th with 120 points (2014) and 6th with 153 points (2015). This year the team took 3rd place with 98 points - behind some solid performances by all of the men. The men had 2 top-20 finishes; 4 individuals under 28:00; and 9 men under 30:00.

Leading the way for the Bobcat Men was sophomore Robbie Romano. He crossed the finish line 13th and only seconds from breaking 27 minutes. Xavier Alvarez strolled across the line in 27:28 and just 3 places behind Romano. Sophomore Matt Whitley had a great race - coming in 3rd for the team and 21st overall (just barely missing out on a medal). Whitley covered the course in 27:45. Next in for the Bobcats was Jacob Rickards. Rickards finished in 24th place overall and just 6 seconds behind Whitley. Freshman Timmy Wolodkin fought the entire way to the finish - sprinting to the end to try and overtake a conference foe runner from St. Mary's. He pushed himself to a 34th place finish and a time of 28:19.

While Wolodkin was the last scorer for the Bobcats, the men's 6th place finisher was important to the team scoring. The men's point total was tied with that of McDaniel College, however because the Bobcats 6th place finisher crossed the line before the Green Terror's 6th runner - the 3rd place plaque went to our Bobcats! The men's 6th place finisher was Tom Burklow. Burklow finished 4 seconds behind teammate Wolodkin and finished in 36th place overall. As mentioned earlier, Burklow beat McDaniel's 6th place finisher to the line but what wasn't mentioned was that he also beat their 5th place finisher as well. Adding to that, our #7 (Brady Dumonchelle), 8 (Lorenzo Wilson), and 9 (Ben Allston) runners also beat McDaniel's 5th runner to the finish line.

The Hood College Open was a good tune-up heading into CACs. The men's team has 2 weeks before the conference championship hosted by PSU-Harrisburg. This coming weekend the team doesn't have a meet - only practice. It will give them the opportunity to regroup, strategize, and deal with any reoccurring injuries.

FSU Full Men's Results:

13th - Robbie Romano - 27:09

16th - Xavier Alvarez - 27:28

21st - Matthew Whitley - 27:45

24th - Jacob Rickards - 27:51

34th - Timmy Wolodkin - 28:19

36th - Thomas Burklow - 28:23

46th - Brady Dumonchelle - 28:48

51st - Lorenzo Wilson - 29:01

53rd - Ben Allston - 29:16

76th - Stan Higham - 30:43

87th - Zach Talbert - 31:45