Oct. 4, 2003
CHICAGO, ILL. – The Õ¥Ö¼§ men’s cross country team placed eighth overall and fifth among Division I schools at the highly competitive Loyola Lakefront Invitational in Chicago on Saturday.
The Raiders finished fifth in Division I behind Loyola, Universal Sole/Adidas, DePaul, and Purdue. Sixth place finisher Illinois State trailed the Raiders by 42 points. Õ¥Ö¼§ also defeated Nebraska, Dayton, and Toledo along with the nearly fifty other teams that competed in the race.
Xavier deBoissezon (Geneva, Swit.) crossed the finish line first for the Raiders. His personal best time of 24:46 was good enough for sixth out of 480 runners. Õ¥Ö¼§â€™s second place finisher freshman Mike Hanlon (Ann Arbor, Mich.) crossed the line 38th in a personal best 25:40 and senior teammate Louis DiNuzzo (Loudonville, N.Y.) followed in 39th by less than a second.
Sophomore Sean Curran (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) was 45th overall with a personal best time of 25:46. Sophomore Jake Krong (Amsterdam, N.Y) was 92nd in 26:17 while freshman Andrew Isabel (Andover, Mass.) was 131st with a personal best time of 26:39.
‘The team exceeded my expectations,’ said head coach Art McKinnon. ‘The top time in this year’s race was nearly 25 seconds faster than last year. Our top four did a great job and if we can close the gap between the four and five spots we will be much more competitive than expected in the Patriot League.’
The Raiders are off and running again on October 18th at the Leopard Invitational in Easton, Pa. The race is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.