WATERVILLE, ME – The Saint Joseph's College men's cross country team placed sixth with 180 points in the 2013 State of Maine Championship on Saturday morning. Freshman Cody Vachon (Shapleigh, Maine) paced the Monks and finished 41st out of 143 runners with a 28:48 performance.
With two of the top four finishers and all five scorers in the top 13 overall, Bowdoin College claimed the team title with 41 points while Colby College (46 points) and Bates College (47) finished close behind. For the Polar Bears, the State Championship is the 10th in the last 14 years.
Southern Maine (119), Maine Maritime (157), Saint Joseph's (180), Maine-Farmington (184), Thomas College (230), Husson University (260) and Maine-Presque Isle (282) also competed in the annual event.
Bowdoin senior Coby Horowitz claimed top individual honors with a 26:02 time, six ticks faster than runner-up Michael Martin of Bates College. Horowitz has won the Maine Championship three out of four years and a Bowdoin runner has captured the crown for five-consecutive seasons.
Colby's David Chelimo (26:28), Bowdoin's Sam Seekins (26:30) – the 2012 champion – and Colby's Silar Eastman (26:31) rounded out the top five individual finishers on the day.
For the Monks, freshman Nick Shuckrow (Winslow, Maine) placed 49th (29:30), senior Faisal Abdillahi (Lewiston, Maine) was 68th (30:20), junior Joe DiSalvo (Derry, N.H.) finished 71st (30:27) and sophomore Andrew Caron (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) placed 102nd (32:48).
With Vachon finishing 41st and Shuckrow eight spots behind, the Monks placed two runners in the top 50 at the State of Maine Championship for the first time since 2005. That year, Matt Ferguson '06 was 42nd, Ryan Prescott '09 finished 43rd and Isaac Worrall placed 48th. Vachon's state meet finish is the best by an SJC runner since Prescott placed 23rd in 2008.
Taidghe Hagan (Reading, Mass.) (110, 33:25), Connor Dufour (Augusta, Maine) (112, 33:55), Jeff Merrill (Fitchburg, Mass.) (125, 36:25) and Sam Dunay (Groton, Conn.) (137, 41:30) also ran in the state meet.
Saint Joseph's is off until Saturday, November 2nd when the team hosts the 2013 Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship at 2:00 PM.
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, visitwww.sjcme.edu.
