STANDISH, ME – Saint Joseph's College hosted the 11th Annual Runnin' Monks Invitational men's cross country 8K race on Saturday afternoon. Led by individual champion Sean Colford, Emmanuel College tallied 67 points to claim top team accolades.
Colford, who toured the challenging 8K trail in 28:05, outran a pair of Johnson & Wales University athletes to claim the crown. JWU runners Adam Sachs (28:17) and Brian Dinan (28:21) placed second and third, respectively, and Robert Nichols of Norwich University (28:28) finished fourth. Saint Joseph's freshman Cody Vachon (Shapleigh, Maine) was fifth with a 28:41 performance – the fastest time by a Monks' runner in the SJC-hosted event since Ryan Prescott '09 won the race with a 27:41 effort in 2008.
A total of 15 teams participated in the 11th running of the Runnin' Monks race, which featured the largest group of individual runners – 120 – to ever compete in a men's race on the Saint Joseph's College campus. With Emmanuel securely in first place, Norwich University claimed runner-up honors with 85 points while Johnson & Wales (121 points), Thomas College (129) and Saint Joseph's (136) rounded out the top five competing institutions in the event.
University of New England (6th, 139 points), Maine-Farmington (7th, 140), Johnson State College (8th, 203), Husson University (9th, 236), Lasell College (10th, 254), Emerson College (11th, 274) and Nicholls College (12th, 284) also participated in the 8K race.
University of Maine-Machias and Newbury College also featured runners in the race but did not score.
The win for Emmanuel College is the Saints' first in the Runnin' Monks race. Emerson captured the crown last fall and Johnson & Wales collected titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
For Saint Joseph's, junior Joe DiSalvo (Derry, N.H.) placed 12th (29:11), freshman Nick Shuckrow (Winslow, Maine) finished 13th (29:14) and sophomore Andrew Caron (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) was 49th (31:13).
Junior Jeff Merrill (Fitchburg, Mass.) (78th, 33:05), sophomore Connor Dufour (Augusta, Maine) (86th, 33:37) and junior Matt Boucher (Augusta, Maine) (99th, 34:55) also ran in the home event.
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.
