Cardinal Points

Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Tony Casey (l-r in red) Seniors Alyssa Recny, Toni Wiszowaty and Allison Busby open up the NCAA Division III Championships along with junior Brittney Bezjian and senior Jen Taft earlier today at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

NORTHFIELD, Minn. - Plattsburgh State Head Coach John Lynch couldn't be happier. His Lady Cardinals just placed second in the nation at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.

"I'm on cloud nine, I don't even know who placed third, fourth, or anything after us," Lynch said.

He has lots to be proud of as his Cardinal women defeated every big team in the nation except one, Amherst College.

They were just given a final season ranking of fifth and blasted off at the right time, the national championships.

The most important single victory of the day came over 2007 SUNYAC Cross Country Champions Geneseo State, who won the national team title in 2005 and tied the Cardinals at last weekend's Atlantic Regional Championships.

"We beat Geneseo!" senior Allison Busby said in excitement. "Put that in your story!"

Busby led the Lady Cardinals today for the first time all season with an eight place finish in a time of 21:32 over the 6K course.

She was followed by senior Toni Wiszowaty who finished 10th (21:37), and senior Alyssa Recny in 25th (21:59) who, along with Busby, are awarded All-American status.

Junior Brittney Bezjian placed 80th (22:48), sophomore Jenny Schaffhouser placed 112th (23:04), senior Nicole Howard placed 256th (24:16) and junior Jen Taft finished 269th (24:47) rounded out the top seven Cardinal runners.

The competitors were welcomed this morning with conditions familiar to northeastern New York area.

"A lot of teams were in snow shock," Wiszowaty said.

This may have played into the hands of the PSUC team who prepared well for this sort of racing.

"We've trained in all sorts of conditions," Taft said. "We've run in a snow, snow and rain, wind and rain, snow, wind and rain…so we were prepared for anything."

Lynch added, "We're a tough course team and we've prepared for this type of running. This course is comparable to William's Invitational course."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools