Senior Rebecca Broadbent takes 3rd place All-American Finish at USCAA National Championships
(Virgina Beach, VA) –
Vermont Tech Senior and Dairy Management student Rebecca Broadbent closed out her collegiate running career with her best race of her 4 year college career at the Virginia Beach Sports complex, site of the 2017 USCAA Cross Country National Championships. In less than perfect conditions with muddy trails and high winds, Rebecca ran her 6K race in a personal best time of 23: 48. This time beats her own previous Vermont Tech record.
Rebecca's time was more than enough to earn her a 3rd place finish overall and her 3rd All American title in 4 years at Vermont Tech. "She is the best cross country runner to run for Vermont Tech" says coach Dunkle. In her 4 years at VTC Rebecca has won 3 conference titles, 3 All-American awards, 2 All-American Academic awards, 4 All-State Vermont Collegiate Athlete awards, USCAA athlete of the week, and has repeatedly broken her own records for female runners at Vermont Tech. "Rebecca has worked hard her entire career here" said Dunkle, "and is easy to coach. I give her the workouts and she always does them and sometimes more."
This last Nationals race was a nail biter. Rebecca ran the first half of the race with the top runners, battling in and out of second place. She passed Natasha Stevenson of Cleary University going into the 4th Kilometer to take the second spot for the remainder of the race. Rebecca tried hard to pull out the second place finish, but Natasha beat her just as they were crossing the finish line. Coach Dunkle stated "she literally was sick at the finish line losing the 2nd place spot in a dramatic finish to Natasha Stevenson of Cleary University." It was a heck of a finish. When asked if she was tired at the finish Rebecca just smiled and said " Oh Yeah!" Congratulations Rebecca Broadbent for a great running career at Vermont Tech.
Rebecca was joined on the Women's side by Jocy Turinetti of Randolph, VT who also ran a personal fastest time of 29:52 finishing 70th overall. Jocy was followed by Masha Goodspeed of Rutland, VT in 92nd with her best 6K time of 31:44. All 3 Women ran their fastest time of the season.
On the Men's side Vermont Tech had 4 runners in he 8KM Championship race. The Men were led by Dave Mattern from South Royalton, VT who ran to a 92nd place finish with a 31:53 time. Dave was followed by Michael Dunkle of Tunbridge, VT finishing 105th with a 33:00 minute time; Jonathan Puffer of Groton, VT finishing at 109th, 33:10 and Mathew Kelly from Fort Kent, ME in 113th at 33:37. The men had a 1:44 spread which is really great for team training. We are looking forward to next year when both teams expect to add a few runners with new recruits and keeping the most of the current team so we are looking at a strong team for 2018.
