STANDISH, ME – University of New England placed eight of the top 10 runners en route to defeating Saint Joseph's by a 16-47 margin in the 2012 cross country opener for both programs on Saturday morning. Junior Faisal Abdillahi (Lewiston, Maine) toured the 6K course in 23:07 and finished fifth overall.
Nor'easters sophomore Shane Murphy (Glastonbury, Conn.) collected top individual honors with a 22:10 effort, just tenths of a second faster than teammate Nate DiMartino (Hilton, N.Y.), while sophomore Chad Lyons (West Rutland, Vt.) placed third (22:48), freshman Gabe Turner (Portland, Maine) placed fourth (22:56) and first-year CJ Vallie (Nashua, N.H.) rounded out the UNE scorers with a sixth-place effort (23:12).
For the Monks, Taidghe Hagan (Reading, Mass.) placed ninth in his first NCAA meet with a 23:40 time, sophomore Jeff Merrill (Fitchburg, Mass.) was 16th (25:01), freshman Andrew Caron (Gardiner, Maine) finished 17th (25:02) and Billy Brooks (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) placed 21st (25:43).
Freshman Sam Dunay (Groton, Conn.) (26:35, 22nd), junior Bryndon Page (Windham, Maine) (28:11, 24th) and sophomore Matt Boucher (Augusta, Maine) (28:49, 25th) also participated in the head-to-head race.
Saint Joseph's takes to the trails next Saturday when the Monks compete in the UNE Invitational at Rotary Park in Biddeford. The race is slated to begin at 11:30 AM.
