Meet Results (PDF)

CANTON, NY (October 10, 2009) – Head coach James McCowan has always viewed the cross country season in stages, the final one being peak racing performance in November. While McCowan admits that Saturday's third place finish in the Liberty League 8k Championships at St. Lawrence was disappointing, he and his team left the race feeling the season will still unfold as he predicts. 

Host St. Lawrence captured the championship with 18 points, followed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in second (56), Vassar (98), Clarkson (105), Union (135) and Hobart (160). Although Saturday's finish may not have been the desired result, it equals last year's effort; one that was the best for Vassar since placing second in 2004. 

Junior Jonathan Erickson, who hadn't trained since last Sunday due to the flu, led the Brewers and finished in 15th place out of 94 runners. Vassar's top five runners all placed among the race's top 40, but by comparison St. Lawrence had an amazing performance, placing its first five runners in every position except third, which was taken by an RPI runner. St. Lawrence junior Dan Ramsey won the race in 25:35, a 5:10 per mile clip. 

“I think the men were tired from training and definitely ran a bit flat,” said McCowan. “I was very excited that Jon came back to run this race, but his illness and Justin (Rupert) not finishing due to a missed step in the woods put us behind. Plus, there was very strong running today from St. Lawrence and RPI.
“Our biggest focus is racing in November and we're still on that trajectory. We're still on track to accomplish our goals and we're not going to let this face bump us off track.” 

Despite running on a course that McCowan said was a bit soggy, soft and muddy, overall conditions were good for a cross country race. The Brewers second place finisher was sophomore Zach Williams who clocked in at 27:36, good for 24th overall. Freshman Roni Teich finished in 26th place, just four seconds behind teammate Williams in 27:40. Fellow freshman Samuel Wagner finished in 36th (28:13) and senior Danny McBee rounded out Vassar's top five scorer with a 39th place finish in 28:20, a ten second improvement over his junior season performance on the same course.

"In his final Liberty League Championship race, Danny ran very well," said McCowan.

Rounding out Vassar's top seven finishers were sophomore William Healy in 40th position (28:26) and senior Dan Liebowitz in 45th (28:56). 

“This was a good experience for us against running against very tough teams,” said McCowan. 

The Brewers will race next Saturday, October 17 at the University of Albany Invitational.