Knights' Norman Benoit takes 3rd, Team 2nd at Men's YSCC Cross Country Championship
Amherst, MA - Vermont State University Randolph competed at the rescheduled Yankee Small College Conference Cross Country meet on Saturday.
Of the 7 colleges competing from 5 states, Vermont State University's Men's team finished 2nd. Coach Dunkle explains that the men overcame a lot of challenges to take the runner up position. "It was a great season, even with the loss of our top runner. The guys stepped up and trained a little harder and worked a lot harder with the goal of taking one of the top positions in conference."
The meet had been rescheduled from Oct 28th due to the recent lockdown in Maine. "Losing the week was tough. Training is specific and we were ready for the 28th, as were the other teams we competed against. The trick was to be able to keep that edge and that fastest race on hold for another week. Whatever we did worked" said a smiling coach Dunkle.
Several of the top runners from competing teams ran slower times than they did at the pre-conference meet on the same course in early October. We did better, with Norman Benoit running over a minute faster on the same course. "Norman did great", said coach Dunkle, "and he has improved a lot over the last several months." Norman finished 3rd overall at the conference meet with a 30:04 time to earn All-Conference honors. Elijah Boucher ran his race in 32:23 for 11th place, which was also over a minute faster than the pre-conference meet. Following Elijah was Oskar Lehnartz in 12th at 18 seconds faster, Rio Coursen in 20th, who ran with the flu and as a result ran 5 seconds slower.
The runner of the day for the Knights was our number 5 runner, who in the world of XC really has a lot of pressure. He is the final scorer and can make or break a race. For Thomas the pressure was real. He is a first year runner and has never learned to run before this season. "Kudos to Thomas" said Coach Dunkle, "he pushed himself to his fastest race and erased 2:23 from his time a month agon on this same course!". It was really cool to see him perform so well. His finish clinched 2nd place for the team.
Connor Mazzarella finished the team regular season running 19 seconds faster than his preconference meet. "I was really surprised" said Dunkle. "A week is a long time to hold onto a peak and they did it. This season has been a tremendous success for the team. A new University, new runners, challenges and hard work. I am proud of all of them who stuck it out and did not quit. Success is the result of not giving up. "
As a result of the rescheduling of the conference meet Vermont State University Men will have one week to train for Nationals. We will be in Pittsburgh, PA competing next Sunday November 12th at the USCAA National Championships. "It's a hilly course" said Dunkle. We eat hills for breakfast.
Full meet results are available on line https://ma.milesplit.com/meets/580806-yankee-small-college-conference-2023/results
