LEWISTON, ME – The SJC men's cross country team placed ninth with 257 points in the 2011 Maine Men's College Cross Country Championship 8K on Saturday afternoon. Sophomore Faisal Abdillahi (Lewiston, Maine) paced the Monks with a 29:35 time and finished 70th overall.
Bowdoin College sophomore Coby Horowitz notched top individual honors for the second consecutive season with a 25:53 time, six seconds in front of runner-up Bates College second-year Tully Hannan. Noah Graboys, another Bates sophomore, finished third (26:09), USM senior John Vallo placed fourth (26:10) and Bates junior Andrew Wortham rounded out the top five with a 26:14 performance.
Bates College, ranked ninth nationally, dominated the annual event with just 23 team points as seven Bobcats finished in the top 11 runners. Bowdoin finished second with 43 points and Southern Maine placed third with 70 points.
Colby College (115), University of New England (167), Maine-Farmington (225), Maine-Presque Isle (237), Maine Maritime (243), Saint Joseph's (257), Unity (270), Thomas College (309), and Maine-Machias (340) also participated in the State Championship.
For the Monks, Joe DiSalvo '15 (Derry, N.H.) finished 79th with a 29:59 time, Matt Boucher '15 (Augusta, Maine) was 121st (32:47), and Andrew Mockler '12 (Saco, Maine) placed 132nd (34:10).
Jeff Merrill '15 (Fitchburg, Mass.) (141st, 35:10) and Robert Travers '15 (Lebanon, Maine) (158th, 51:34) also competed for Saint Joseph's.
The Monks will hit the trails again in two weeks when the Monks compete in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship at Franklin Park in Boston.
