DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Saint Joseph's College men's cross country team placed 23rd with 611 points in the UMass.-Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday. Sophomore Nick Shuckrow (Winslow, Maine) paced the Royal Blue and finished 85th out of 255 participants with a 27:12 effort on the five-mile course.
Monks freshman Lucas Fisher (Strafford, N.H.) was close behind his sophomore teammate, placing 88th with a 27:15 performance. Senior Joe DiSalvo (Derry, N.H.) was 123rd (27:58), junior Taidghe Hagan (Reading, Mass.) finished 175th (29:09) and junior Andrew Caron (Gardiner, Maine) rounded out the Monks' top five finishers with a 29:18 performance, good for 180th overall.
Shuckrow, Fisher, and Caron all posted personal-best times in today's race. Saint Joseph's, which posted five sub-30 times for the first time in 10 years last Saturday at the UNE Invitational, has now had five sub-30 efforts in back to back meets.
Seniors Jeff Merrill (Fitchburg, Mass.) (33:55, 234) and Matt Boucher (Augusta, Maine) (34:11, 237) and freshman James Sweney (Niantic, Conn.) (38:35, 247) - making his NCAA debut - also competed in the race for Saint Joseph's.
Franklin Pierce College collected top team honors with 50 team points after placing three of the top six runners in the five-mile race. WPI was second (100 points), Brandeis (105) was third while New Paltz State and Bentley rounded out the top five competing institutions with 134 and 148 points, respectively.
BJ Smith of Franklin Pierce captured top individual accolades with a 24:48 time while Lee Cattanach of Eastern Connecticut finished as the runner-up with a 24:57 effort. WPI's Ryan Moran was third (25:06), Colton Ham of Franklin Pierce placed fourth (25:09) and Bridgewater State's Andrew Sukeforth finished fifth (25:10).
Saint Joseph's will compete in the Purple Valley Classic, hosted by Williams College at Mt. Greylock High School, next Saturday.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
