Senior Dan Gordon led the Skyhawks with an 82nd place finish at the NCAA Division II National Championships. |
Gordon leads Skyhawks with 82nd place finish
EASTON, Mass. (November 21, 2015) – Stonehill College, ranked 24th in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll, turned in a 27th place finish out of 32 teams competing at the 2015 NCAA Division II men's cross country championships held in Joplin, Missouri, hosted by Missouri State University.
Stonehill raced to a 27th place with 606 points. Colorado School of Mines won the team championship with 100 points, led by senior Marty Andrie, who completed the 10-kilometer race in 30-minutes, 11.2-seconds. Adams State University placed second in the team standings with 127 points, while the University of Alaska Anchorage rounded out the top three (138).
Senior Dan Gordon (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North) paced Stonehill with an 82nd place finish in a time of 31:11.6. This was Gordon's fourth appearance on the national stage, competing at the 2011, 2012, 2014, and now the 2015 NCAA Division II Championship. Junior Joe Santo (Newburyport, Massachusetts/Newburyport) finished 135th overall, completing the course in 31:45.6.
Senior Robert Massey (Chelmsford, Massachusetts/Chelmsford) finished 161st overall in the field of 246 runners in 32:07.5. Junior Antonio Xelhua (Arlington, Massachusetts/Arlington) placed 165th in 32:11.1, while freshman Riley Dowd (Peabody, Massachusetts/Peabody Veterans Memorial) rounded out the Skyhawks scoring runners in 168th with a time of 32:14.3.
Junior Tyler Henseler (Coventry, Rhode Island/Bishop Hendricken) and freshman Larry Carney (Lowell, Massachusetts/Lowell) finished in 176th and 179th place with times of 32:22.2 and 32:25.6, respectively.
Both Gordon and Santo bettered their performances at the NCAA Championships over their careers by a wide margin. Gordon's previous NCAA Championship best was a 124th place finish in 2011 (34:18.4), while Santo placed 192nd last fall in (33:51.8).
Stonehill earned its 13th-straight trip to the NCAA Division II National Championships by placing third overall in the NCAA East Regionals. The Skyhawks had three of its runners (Massey, Gordon and Xelhua) collect All-East Region accolades for its third place finish on Sunday, November 8th.
For the latest on Stonehill Athletics, follow the Skyhawks via social media on Twitter and Facebook.