Six Runners Set Personal Records at Meet

Kevin Brandon

The University of Hartford men’s and women’s cross country squads competed at the 45th Annual University at Albany Cross Country Invitational on Saturday (Oct. 15). In both teams’ final tune-up before the upcoming America East Championships, the men and women each took home ninth-place finishes out of a field of 23 teams. Six Hawks notched personal records in the race.

On the women’s side, the New Hampshire Wildcats took home the team title while host-team Albany scored the top finish for the men in Saturday’s race.

Megan Barry paced the Hartford women in Saturday’s race when she was the 25th runner to cross the finish line after covering the 5,000-meter course in 18:40.5, shaving four seconds off of her previous personal-record time set at the Ted Owen Invitational on Sept. 24. Barry has led the Hawks in every meet this season.

Sam Crisafulli, a rookie, followed suit, scoring a significant new personal record and a 42nd place finish overall. Crisafulli checked in at 19:10.2 and took almost 40 seconds off of her PR 5k time. Jennifer Flores and Rebecca Mendes, a pair of sophomores, were the next Hawks runners to complete the course, finishing 57th and 92nd, respectively. Flores finished in 19:30.3, bettering her previous PR of 20:11.3 set during her rookie campaign, while Mendes crossed at 20:28.3.

Sophomore Stephanie Curcio rounded out the Hawks’ scorers after covering the course in 21:00.6, good for 115th place overall. Rounding out the top seven were Haley Rice and Andie Earwaker, a pair of rookies, who recorded times of 21:14.0 and 21:45.3 for 128th and 150th place, respectively.

A pair of seniors took the top two slots on Hartford’s scorecard on the men’s side with veteran runner Andrew Chalmers again serving as the squad’s top finisher on Saturday. Chalmers placed 16th overall in a field of 185 with a season-best 8,000-meter time of 26:05.7, while classmate Kevin Brandon claimed 36th place overall with his time of 26:32.8, a mark that is 17 seconds better than his personal record.

Junior Wayne Lawrence was next to check in for the Hartford men in 26:44.9, shaving nearly two seconds off of his former personal record en route to 47th place honors. Andrew Dwyer, a sophomore, ranked 54th in Saturday’s meet with his mark of 26:55.6, while junior Robert Giuliani rounded out the Hawks’ scorers after finishing in 27:46.6 for 99th place.

Senior Eric Flaman (28:20.1) took 117th place and was the sixth Hawk to cross, while rookie Bryan Quitamado (28:31.8) was the 121st overall, and seventh Hartford runner, to place with a new PR.