Men's Cross Country Finishes Second at NE-10 Championship in Just Second Varsity Season
Antoine Gisore & Makopa Rugabirwa earn first-team accolades
MANCHESTER, N.H. (October 27, 2013) – The Franklin Pierce University men’s cross country team continued its amazing fall season on Sunday by finishing second at the 2013 Northeast-10 Conference Championship at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.
It was the highest finish at the NE-10 championship in program history, as the Ravens are competing in just their second season at the varsity level since being reinstituted in 2012. The Ravens logged a team score of 70 points, just 13 shy of Stonehill, who won the team championship.
All five Ravens that counted towards the team score finished among the top-21 competitors to earn All-NE-10 accolades, including junior Antoine Gisore (Concord, N.H.) and sophomore Makopa Rugabirwa (Concord, N.H.), who both garnered first-team honors by finishing in fifth and sixth place, respectively.
Gisore finished in a time of 25:43, while Rugabirwa crossed the finish line just three seconds behind at 25:46. Gisore’s split over the race was 3:13, while Rugabirwa’s was 3:14.
The other three Ravens to earn all-conference recognition were freshman B.J. Smith (Concord, N.H.), freshman Dage Minors (Hamilton Perish, Bermuda), and sophomore Colton Ham (Webster, N.H.), as all three earned third-team honors for finishing 18th, 20th and 21st, respectively.
Smith’s 18th place performance came in a time of 26:13, while Minors’ time was 26:14. Ham finished in a time of 26:18, as he earned All-NE-10 honors for the second time in as many seasons.
Franklin Pierce returns to action in two weeks when the Ravens compete in the NCAA East Regional Championship at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass. A top-three team finish in the event would enable the Ravens to qualify for the NCAA National Championship late in November.
For more information on Franklin Pierce men’s cross country, please visit the team’s page at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu. To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce cross country apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)