By Brendan Driscoll/Sports Information Staff
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – Senior Cora Gingras (East Hampton) and sophomore Lee Cattanach (New London) recorded the best times for the Eastern Connecticut State University men's and women's cross country teams on a rainy Friday afternoon at the Central Connecticut State University Mini-Meet at Stanley Quarter Park.
The meet – the fifth of the season for Eastern and final one until the Little East Conference Championships schedule in nine days -- consisted of mostly Division I schools. It was also a short course, the women running 3,000 meters and the men 5,000. The weather also had a significant impact on the runners. It rained heavily throughout the meet and the course became difficult to run. In one area of the course, there was a puddle that was ankle deep.
First-year head coach Kathy Manizza felt that the stiff competition did not show exactly how good the team is. She did feel like the race of this short length short benefit the team and it should put the team at peak performance for the conference championships on Saturday.
The women's team once again ran close together in the race, with all five of the scoring runners finishing within 73 seconds. The women's team finished 12th in the 14-team field, which consisted of 144 runners. Gingras ran first for Eastern with a time of 11:32 finishing 62nd (scoring 53 points). Gingras improved from a disappointing result in the previous meet at the New England Open Championships two weeks ago.
Junior Katie France (Portland) ran second for Eastern finishing just eight seconds behind Gingras, with a time of 11:40. Following France was freshman Kylie McCartney (Manchester) who finished just ten seconds behind in 67th place. Junior Alexa Palasky (Griswold) and sophomore Kelly Labanara (Chaplin) were Eastern's fourth and fifth runners, recording times of 12:07 and 12:45, respectively.
Manizza believes that the women's team should have a very good performance in the upcoming conference championships. She hopes that four or five runners can run under 20 minutes when the team returns to Stanley Park in Westfield, Massachusettsfor the second time this year on Saturday.
In the men's field of 12 teams, Eastern finished 11th. Cattanach was Eastern's first runner with a time of 16:25, finishing 38th in the 115 person field (scoring 33 points). Sophomores David Klein (New Milford) and Austin Baldour (Newtown) finished just 33 seconds apart to finish as the second and third runners of Eastern. Sophomore Kyle Shaw (Lebanon) scored 68 points while being Eastern's No. 4 runner with a time of 18:53. Eastern's fifth runner was freshman Steven LaFlamme (Moosup) with a time of 21:11. Juniors Evan Glaude (East Hampton) and Mike Singletary (Hartford) did not race in an attempt to be healthy and rested for Saturday.
Manizza felt that the men may not have ran very well due to the tough competition. In the 12 team field, ten teams are Division I programs. However, she remains confident that they will come back strong this weekend. The short race last week and a light training week should put the team in a good position for Saturday.
