The cross country teams hit the course for one final regular season meet last Friday at Goddard Park. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
The Rhode Island Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams both finished second behind a strong Brown team Friday at the Rothenberg Run in East Greenwich, but there were still plenty of impressive individual showings.
This was Rhode Island’s fourth meeting against Brown this season, as they competed against each other at the Nassaney Invitational and the Battle in Beantown, as well as the New England Championships just last weekend. In all of those matchups, the Bears finished above the Rams in the men’s and women’s races, and this one was no different.
On the women’s side, in the 3200-meter race, the team’s young squad ran hard and finished with 50 points, with a number of individuals performing well for the Rams.
One runner in particular that has been opening eyes this season is freshman Madeline Till, who has finished all but one race as the top finisher for the Rams. She continued a remarkable freshman season, finishing 8th out of 24 runners with a time of 12:02.
Shortly after her, senior Sabrina Charron finished tenth with a time of 12:12. She was followed by senior Nicole Cassavell and freshmen Brynne Wright and Erin Hurley for the Rams.
Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick the way her young squad has performed this season.
“I am really excited for this team,” Feit-Melnick said. “We have a super young team that fights hard. I can’t wait to watch them continue to progress.”
In terms of where she sees the girls’ progression going into the Atlantic 10 championships, Feit-Melnick just wants to see her girls compete now.
“Again, we have a very young team,” she said. “We are just going to continue to take it day by day and go out and compete as hard as we can.”
As for the men’s 5K, they also finished second to Brown with a total of 45 points on the day. Their top finisher was senior Eric Zulkofske, who has been a model of consistency for the Rams all season, finishing first for Rhody all but one time. He came in fifth place with a time of 15:00.
The only Ram to beat Zulkofske in a race this season, junior Ben Fleischer, finished seventh with a time of 15:05. Senior Tyler Rubush and junior Colin Ochs finished afterward for the Rams.
Assistant Coach Brian Doyle was satisfied with his guys despite the loss and felt they took advantage of their last chance to improve before the Atlantic 10 Championships.
“We always come out trying to come as close to winning as possible,” Doyle said. “I thought our guys showed some real toughness and took a step in the right direction this weekend.”
Going into the Atlantic 10 Championships, Doyle hopes to see improvement from his team.
“Hopefully this last race can kind of springboard us.” Doyle said. “If we can improve upon last year, that is definitely the goal.”
The men and women will race next weekend in the Atlantic 10 Championships in Ohio. This is the first postseason meet for the Rams, and they will look to start strong. The meet is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.