Men Take on Hundreds to Finish 31st at NCAA Regionals
On October 8th, the men’s cross country team competed at the DeSales University Invite. They finished 17th out of 38 teams with 523 points. Many schools that competed at this meet looked at it as a preview for the regional meet.
Yesterday, a little over a month after that preview meet, the Frostburg men’s cross country team competed at the NCAA Mideast Regional XC Championships. They finished 31st out of 52 complete teams, with 852 points. The men’s field was comprised of 351 runners, making it the 2nd largest field of runners among the 8 different regions. The New England was the largest region with 384 runners.
Frostburg’s first runner to finish was Robbie Romano. He finished in 64th place with a time of 26:32. When Romano ran this course back in early October, he crossed the line at 27:25 (close to a minute slower than his time yesterday!). Romano’s 64th place finish is the best NCAA Mideast Regional finish for a Frostburg male runner since Gavin Caupp finished 64th in the 2008 XC season.
Sophomore Matt Whitley was the next Frostburg finisher. Similar to Romano, Whitley covered the course about a minute faster than he did earlier in the season. Whitley finished 144th overall with a time of 27:30.
The team’s next 5 finishers seemed to follow each other across the finish line in 15 second increments. Senior Xavier Alvarez finished his collegiate cross country career with a 205th place finish and a time of 28:15. His finishing time is over a minute faster than his time a month ago. Frostburg’s fourth runner to finish was Timmy Wolodkin. Wolodkin actually had the biggest time drop out of the 7 runners representing Frostburg. Back in October, Wolodkin crossed the line with a time of 30:01. Yesterday he finished 216th overall with a time of 28:30. Tom Burklow was the 5th Frostburg finisher and 229th overall finisher. He came across the finish line with a time of 28:45.
Jacob Rickards was the team’s next finisher and placed 240th overall. His time of 28:57 was only 2 seconds off his previous time on this course. The team’s 7th place finisher was Brady Dumonchelle. Dumonchelle crossed the line in 255th place with a time of 29:17 (31 seconds faster than when he last ran at DeSales).
The NCAA Mideast Regional XC Championships marks the last meet of the season for the men. The men had a stellar season – multiple individual top 10 performances and 3 team wins! The runners will take a few weeks off and then start up with the rest of the track & field team after Thanksgiving. Congrats on a great season guys!
