POUGHKEEPSIE, New York -- The Marist men's and women's cross country teams will be competing in the 2016 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday, Oct 29. The races will be held at Hess Fields at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The men will begin at 8 a.m. while the women are scheduled for 9:00 a.m. The championship is returning to Florida for the first time since 2012.
Leading the women into championship season is Mara Schiffhauer, and her school record-breaking performance on Oct. 15, placing 25th overall with a time of 22:05 at the Princeton Invitational. Following the team captain was Ali Bortolotta (22:05.6), Emily Burns (22:36.8) and Elizabeth Wasserman (22:44.2) in the race.
The women's team set a program record earlier in the season in the Paul Short 6km run, with help from Christine Gambell, Mariah Christian, and Shea Bohan, as 12 athletes finished under 23 minutes. Building off this momentum, the team strives to surpass their 2015 MAAC Championships 5th place finish this upcoming weekend.
In 2015, the men's cross country team placed second in the MAAC Championship at Rosedale Park, in Pennington, NJ. Marist out ran nine other teams and trailed only Iona with a total of 93 points on the day. The Red Foxes enter the 2016 championship season holding a third place finish, the highest in program history, at the Paul Short Run Brown Race on Oct. 1st. Senior captain Spencer Johnson crossed the finish line in 17th, with a time of 25:03.
Other outstanding performances from this season came on Oct. 15th in the Princeton Invitational 8km race by Matt Baffuto (24:57.9), Saad Baig (25:08.8) and Stefan Morton (25:15.0).
The race will be streamed live on WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app here. Fans can view the stream for free using the login information from their cable provider accounts. Live stats will also be available here.
