Men's Cross Country takes top 7 at USCAA Nationals
On November 12th Vermont State University Cross Country was at Penn State Fayette for the USCAA National Championship Cross Country race. Led by Norman Benoit (18th), Vermont State finished the season with a 7th place finish. Vermont State ran without our 3rd runner who was out with Covid. Despite this setback the Men ran well and finished well.
Penn State has a pretty challenging course. The hills are similar to our home course, but there are more of them. Coach Dunkle described his team this year. I would like to give a shout out to each of these guys who have worked so hard to become better and stronger over the course of the season. Norman, who took over the lead position of the team when we lost our last season's number 1 runner, has really stepped up. He is coachable and a lot of fun to work with. He has done well, finishing top 3 at conference and missing All American by only 4 places at Nationals. Norman is a great person and athlete."
Rio Coursen has been with the team 2 years. Rio works hard at everything he does. He is a natural leader and is one of the main reasons we still have Athletics at this campus. Behind the scenes Rio is very involved with leadership at the University and the Cross-Country team. He is an important part of our program.
Oscar Lehnartz is another person that knows how to work hard. He serves the community around Vermont State as part of the White River Ambulance and the Campus Emergency Response team. Oscar trained hard, set high goals and helped the team to achieve its success.
Elijah Boucher captured the second-place position on the team during the season. Elijah is one of those people who, when he sets his mind to do something, is unstoppable. Last year he began his running career. He did not run really well, his technique was rough. During the past year he set his mind to learning the technique and gaining endurance. It paid off, with a streak of Personal Best times in all but a couple of races. That is hard in Cross Country because the courses vary, and conditions change. Someone forgot to tell Elijah that. He just did it.
Connor Mazzarella is steady. Very consistent and dependable. They are all dependable, but Connor in a quiet way. He is always there and always ready to do whatever needs to be done. I am glad for Connor and his support of the team. We could not have accomplished what we have without his participation.
Thomas Transue has been awesome to have on our team. He is willing to learn new things, running being one of them. Thomas clinched our runner up position in conference and ran well at Nationals. A first-year student, Thomas will be an asset to the team over the next few years.
Nationally recognized Academic All-American awards were given to Rio Coursen, Elijah Boucher and Connor Mazzarella in the post-race awards ceremony. Academic All American shows the ability of a student athlete to maintain high grades while competing on a National Level. This is a prestigious award that recognizes a persons skills on and off the field.
It has been a great season for us, with a team that ran well and worked well together. Next XC season will start in August with our annual trip to Cape Cod for a week of training.
When Thomas crossed the finish line at Nationals, track season started. Vermont State University has a great track program. We will start indoors next month with competition in Vermont and Boston during the winter to help prepare for the outdoor season.
