Women's XC Blows Past DI & DII Teams to Capture Crown at NJIT Meet

Newark, N.J. - The St. Joseph's women's cross country team shocked the competition with an unlikely capturing of first place at NJIT's Highlander Invitational at Branch Brook Park.  Amazingly, the women rested their top runner, Christine Cristobal, to ready for the upcoming championship season and were not expecting a top team finish as they were competing against three NCAA Division I, six Division II and more than a dozen other Division III institutions. St. Joseph's shocked themselves and their opponents by winning the entire meet with their best performance of the year.  The men's team also fared well by placing sixth overall.

Gillian Goodwin led the team to victory by running the fastest 5000 meter race in the fourteen year history of the program with a 19:03 clocking for 10th place. Teammates AnnMarie Zigrosser and Caitlyn Ryan came in right behind her with times of 19:10 and 19:15 in 12th and 15th place. The victory was guaranteed when Maureen Quinn and Brittany Guttieri finished in 24th and 26th place with times of 19:34 and 19:44. Mary Cipriano and Jenna Pearsall completed the team scoring in 34th and 39th place with times of 20:21 and 20:28.

The Lady Eagles bested their Division I host, NJIT, by scoring 65 points to the Highlanders 75. The next two teams were local Division II rivals Molloy (104) and St. Thomas Aquinas (111).  A total of 23 complete and incomplete teams rounded out the scoring.

The men were led to a sixth place finish by senior Mike Lombardi who became the second fastest SJC runner over 8000 meters (4.97 miles) with a time of 26:32. Only Brian Knipfing's legendary 2005 ECAC performance of 26:11 was faster than Lomabrdi's effort. The time is also the fastest Skyline performance of the year.

St. Joseph's packed its next three runners in the 27 minute range with Brian Wersan (27:00), Paul Milazzo (27:02) and Jon Afanador (27:31). Evan Haun ran his first race since September 8 with a strong 28:49 effort. SJC's next two runners also broke the magical 30:00 barrier with Rich Schimmel (28:58) and Kevin Sanders (29:41.)

The men's meet was won by the host school, NJIT, with 86 points. Division III rival USMMA followed closely with 101 points, followed by three DII teams - St. Thomas Aquinas (110), Molloy (123), and Dowling (144).  St. Joseph's was next with 174 points. Twenty-two men's teams competed in the meet.