The Albertus Magnus men's and women's cross country teams competed at the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Cross Country Championship on Saturday. The 18th running of the league race took place on the campus of Rivier University.
For the third consecutive year, Johnson & Wales won the women's team title, while Norwich University claimed the men's championship.
The women's 5k race featured JWU edging out second place finisher Saint Joseph's College of Maine, while the Wildcats won their sixth overall GNAC Championship with 47 points. The Monks tallied 55 points, while Simmons College took third with 85 to round out the top-three teams, respectively.
Monks' sophomore Amber Dostie cruised to a first place finish to grab the individual title as she was named the 2012 Runner of the Year for the second consecutive year. Dostie paced the field of 143 runners and finished the 5k race in 19:19. Johnson & Wales senior Laura Furaro finished in second in a time of 20:04. Saint Joseph's College freshman Lauren Rabideau took third place with a time of 20:17.2 as she was the top freshman runner and earned GNAC Rookie of the Year honors while her coach Ray Puntam was selected as the 2012 GNAC Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year.
Junior Kelsey Proctor (Guildford, Conn.) led the Falcons to a 10th place finish out of 12 teams as she took 20th place with a time of 21:40.5. Lindsey Raynor (Branford, Conn.) took 119th place with a time of 28:49.5. Leyna Andren (Manahawkin, N.J.) was the next Falcons' finisher with five of her teammates finishing in a row in the 35th and 36th minutes of the race.
On the men's side, after a second place finish in 2011, Norwich University captured the 2012 GNAC Championship as four Cadets were able to finish in the top 10. Freshman Adam Miller was the top Cadet runner as he crossed the line at 26:40. He finished third overall and was named the Rookie of the Year as he was the first freshman finisher.
JWU senior Jeff Hartman earned back-to-back GNAC Runner of the Year honors after pacing the field of 91 runners with his 8k time of 25:51. Emerson's Kyle Oppenheimer took second place at 26:37 followed by Miller in third.
For the second time in three years, Emmanuel's Tony DaRocha was named GNAC Coach of the Year. He took home the Men's honors back in 2010 and was selected as the Women's Coach of the Year last season.
Sinque Tavaras took 78th place to lead Albertus in the race as he finished with a time of 37:38.1.