Women’s Cross Country Runs at Mount St. Mary’s 5k Duals to Open Season
Team scores (PDF)
EMMITSBURG, Md. (August 31, 2018) – Sophomore Marissa Farago (Salisbury, Mass.) slipped into the top 25, of an 85-runner field filled largely with Division I student-athletes, to lead the way for the Franklin Pierce University women's cross country team at the Mount St. Mary's 5k Duals. As a team at the season-opening meet, the Ravens went winless in the dual-meet format, falling to George Washington, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, host Mount St. Mary's and Maryland-Baltimore County.
Friday's meet was not scored in the traditional method of scoring cross country meets. Instead, each team was scored on a head-to-head basis against each of the other schools in attendance. With lower scores being better, Franklin Pierce suffered defeats of 15-49 to George Washington, 15-50 to Johns Hopkins, 18-45 to Maryland, 19-39 to Mount St. Mary's and 17-46 to UMBC. Johns Hopkins defeated all others at the meet, posting a 5-0 record, while George Washington went 4-1, Maryland finished 3-2, UMBC posted a 2-3 record and Mount St. Mary's notched a 1-4 mark, in front of the Ravens at 0-5.
"The course ran over a minute slower than it did last year, due in large part to the heat, humidity and softer surface," said head coach Zach Emerson after the meet. "But I was very pleased with the efforts from our ladies, who really put in a lot of work this summer."
Individually, Farago finished the 5K course in 20:11.89, which put her in 25th place. She would be the only Raven to place in the top half of the field, as the next Franklin Pierce runner was junior Julia Cormier (Northwood, N.H.), who crossed the line in 61st place (21:54.77).
The Franklin Pierce scoring five was filled out by junior Rebecca Zylak (Goffstown, N.H.) in 65th (22:20.50) sophomore Daijanique White (Hartford, Conn.) in 67th (22:56.54) and sophomore Lauren Stankiewicz (Naugatuck, Conn.) in 72nd (23:27.04). Freshman Alana Thompson (Westampton, N.J.), sophomore Rebecca Cooke (Nottingham, N.H.) and freshman Alena Masterson (Pelham, N.H.) rounded out the Ravens' participation in the meet in 79th (24:27.22), 82nd (25:45.24) and 83rd (26:03.71), respectively.
"I thought Farago and White ran really gutsy races from the very start," added Emerson. "They both will be very important to our women's team accomplishing their lofty goals for November."
The Ravens return to action on Saturday, Sept. 8, when they travel to Northampton, Mass., for the Smith College Invitational.
For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce cross country apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).