The cross-country team wrapped up a disappointing 2002 season with its final meets, the Cabrini invitational on Sat Oct. 26, and the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference championship on Nov 2.
The Cavs’ hosted the Cabrini Invitational, which took place at the Belmont Plateau in nearby Philadelphia. The seven mens’ teams that participated in the yearly event were the College of Misercordia, Gloucester County College, Wesley College, Albright College, Marywood College. Valley Forge Military Academy and Williamson Trade School.
The Cabrini men had a team score of 175 that placed them seven out of the eight teams that competed. Sophomore communications major Shaun Smith felt that overall the team ran pretty well and finished better then expected. Smith said, “I ran my fastest time of the year, it was two or three minutes faster than any other meet.”
Cabrini had two female runners that participated in the invitational, Senior Andrea Dragone, and Sophomore Anh Nduyen. Nduyen finished 39 out of the 71 runners with a time of 25:24.12, and Dragone finished 52 out of 71 in 27:06.61.
Cabrini finished the season with the PAC championship which was held at the same place as the Invitaionl that took place the week before. Smith said, “Last week was basically a warm-up, we get to run on the same course two weeks in a row to see what its like and try to better our time.”
Sophomore Mike Bittner finished 25 out of 41 in the PAC championship. He finished second out of the Cabrini men’s runners with a time of 34:48.51. Bittner said, ” It’s been a tough year for us, we’ve been running all season without a full team.” The men’s team placed fourth overall in the championship.
Tom O’Hora who coaches both the men’s and women’s teams, was not happy with the outcome of the season. O’Hora said, “This season was our worst season ever, we just ran into a slew of bad luck.”
The coach and team members are excited for next season. Bittner said, “I am going to practice hard this summer. Next season we need to have a team that’s willing to stick together.” We are all determined to turn both teams around. We already have seen a great deal of interest from several good high school runners,” O’Hora said.
