Sophomore Taxter leads Skyhawks to 11th-place finish
DORCHESTER, Mass. (October 8, 2016) – The Stonehill College men's cross country team tallied an 11th-place finish overall out of 34 teams comprised of Division I, II and III teams Saturday morning at the New England Championship.
The Skyhawks scored 300 points for its 11th-place mark, while Northeastern University tallied a first-place mark with a score of 102. Brown University crossed the finish second (113), as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (133), Boston University (156), and University of Maine (156) followed finishing in the top five.
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Taxter tallied a career-best time leading the Skyhawks in the varsity division |
Sophomore Lucas Taxter (Readville, Mass./Xaverian Brothers) led the Skyhawks crossing the finish with a career-best time of 25:22.3, good for 23rd place.
Senior Antonio Xelhua (Arlington, Mass./Arlington) was the second Stonehill runner to finish, placing 59th among the field of 221 at the eight-kilometer race with a time of 25:57.6. Sophomore Riley Dowd (Peabody, Mass./Peabody Veterans Memorial) was fell close behind tallying 65th (26:00.2). Alexander Demeule (Merrimac, Mass./Pentucket Regional) and Daniel Nolan (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) crossed the line back-to-back 76th (26:09.1) and 77th (26:09.5).
Kenny Vinacco (Scituate, R.I./Scituate) finished 113th with a time of 26:40.7, while Sam Bradford (Bedford, Mass./Bedford) was the last Stonehill runner to cross the line at 27:37.1 for a 177th-place tally.
"The men gave a solid effort all around," stated head coach Karen Boen. "There are some things that we need to work on and we didn't have some of our top runners in this race. But, coming out of the last invitational, we were very pleased."
In the men's sub-varsity eight-kilometer race, Stonehill finished fourth among 19 teams tallying 105 points. Amherst College took the title with 87 points as Massachusetts Institute of Technology followed with 92 points and Northeastern University took third with 98 points.
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Murphy led the sub-varsity division |
Junior Jimmy Murphy (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield) led the Skyhawks with a time of 26:04.9 making a fifth-place mark. Freshman Michael Durkin (Hingham,Mass./Hingham) finished with a time of 26:20.1 for a 15th-place mark, as junior Alex Southiere (Cumberland,R.I./Cumberland) followed finishing at 26:23.4 for a 21st-place tally.
Sophomore David Lockhart (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) crossed the line 34th with time of 26:38.8. Freshman Chris Gendron (Lowell, Mass./Lowell) finished 54th with a time of 26:59.4. Sophomore Lawrence Carney (Lowell, Mass./Lowell) finished with a time of 27:10.5, good for 60th place.
Sophomore John Onken (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem North) was the last Skyhawk to finish in the top 100 with a time of 27:27.9, good for 79th place. Freshman Peter Blake (Stoneham, Mass./Austin Prep.) tallied 106th place with a time of 28:14.0, while classmates Jeremy Breen (Watertown, Mass./Watertown) and Thomas Mackin (Lynn, Mass./Lynn Classical) crossed the line 148th (29:30.6) and 163rd (30:15.4), respectively.
Stonehill will take some time off as it prepares to host the Northeast-10 Conference Championship on Saturday, October 22 for its Purple and White Event.
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