Oct. 18, 2003
ALBANY _ The Marist College men's cross country team placed third out of 25
teams at the 37th annual University at Albany Cross Country Invitational,
held Saturday on the Albany campus. The Red Foxes had won the team title at
the meet in 2002 and 2000.
Host Albany won a close meet, edging 2002 America East champion New
Hampshire by one point, 64-65. Marist was a close third with 83 points.
Junior Geoff Decker (Delmar, NY) led the way for the Red Foxes with a
personal-best performance. Decker finished fifth overall out of 244 runners
in the race with a time of 25:35.5 on the 5-mile course. It was Decker's
first time under 26 minutes for a 5-mile cross country race in his
collegiate career.
Senior captain Kirk Dornton (Syracuse, NY) placed ninth overall in 25:51.6.
The rest of the scoring pack followed closely behind. Freshman Mark
Fernandez (Commack, NY) notched a career-best time of 26:09.3, good for 19th
place. Sophomore Sean Prinz (Wantagh, NY) also ran the best time of his
collegiate career with a 22nd-place performance of 26:11.9. Junior Steve
Hicks (Red Hook, NY) rounded out the scoring by placing 28th in 26:23.4.
Next up for the men's cross country team is the Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference Championships, to be held Friday, October 31 at Van Cortlandt
Park in the Bronx.
Team standings: 1. Albany 64, 2. New Hampshire 65, 3. Marist 83, 4. NYU 100,
5. Syracuse 177, 6. Massachusetts 197, 7. Middlebury 223, 8. Binghamton 246,
9. St. Lawrence 288, 10. Stony Brook 311, 11. LIU 370, 12. Cortland 391, 13.
Clarkson 395, 14. Siena 418, 15. Oneonta 424, 16. Vassar 431, 17. Hamilton
441, 18. Northeastern and Hunter 454, 20. Adelphi 481, 21. St. Francis 507,
22. St. Rose 726, 23. Potsdam 731, 24. Paul Smith's 746, 25. Broome 751
Individual results, 5-mile course
Overall winner: Anthony Traux, New Hampshire 24:57.5
Marist finishers
5. Geoff Decker 25:35.5
9. Kirk Dornton 25:51.6
19. Mark Fernandez 26:09.3
22. Sean Prinz 26:11.9
28. Steve Hicks 26:23.4
34. Justin Harris 26:30.6
38. Sean Hopkins 26:34.0
50. Ed Burns 26:46.3
76. Mike Schab 27:26.5
80. Charlie Williams 27:29.9
83. Mike Bamberger 27:33.8
96. Matt Syzmaszek 27:51.9
113. Matt Walsh 28:14.9
116. Will Colucci 28:19.1
119. Jeff Belge 28:22.1
121. Mike Guarascio 28:23.1
157. Scott LaPiedra 29:15.3
159. Chris Baum 29:17.1
162. Rick Ambrosio 29:21.2
169. Joe Raucci 29:37.0
191. Pat Taylor 30:02.5
201. Chris Camp 30:37.9
204. Mike Blum 30:47.4
207. Adam Ritter 30:57.9
220. Mike Schaffer 31:54.8
244 finishers
