PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Anselm College men's and women's cross country programs are slated to compete at the 2019 NCAA Division II East Region Championship meet on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Belmont Plateau.
East Regional Race Website
The women's 6K race will kick off at high noon with the men's 10K championship to follow at 1:15 p.m. Thomas Jefferson University is hosting the East Region championship races for the first time in over three decades on Saturday.
The top three teams from each of the eight regional meets from across the country will advance to the National Championship on Saturday, Nov. 23 in Sacramento, Calif. The remaining programs will vie for 10 at-large team selections from across the country.
The top two individuals who are not part of a qualifying team will automatically advance and all top-five individual finishers that are not part of a qualifying team will also earn a spot in Sacramento. There will also be eight at-large picks made.
In 2018, the Saint Anselm women's team placed ninth at the NCAA East Region Championship held in Bethpage, N.Y. Prior to that race, The Hawks had not placed in the top-10 since 2011 when Saint Anselm finished fifth out of 27 teams competing at the regional race.
This season, the Hawks are ranked fourth in the East Region, according to the United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches' Association. With a strong third place finish at the NE10 Championships last time out, Saint Anselm climbed two spots and trails only Roberts Wesleyan, Stonehill and Southern New Hampshire in the region.
"This has been a great group to work with all season," remarked Saint Anselm men's and women's cross country coach, Brian Stankiewicz '17. "The sky is the limit for this group of women and I could not be more excited to watch them toe the line and leave it all out there. This is the most determined team I've ever worked with and Saturday's race will be a lot of fun."
Liberty Gendron '19 paced Saint Anselm with a 38th-place finish and a time of 24:11.70, wrapping up her Hawks career with four-straight finishes where she led the Hawks scorers. Then-freshman Dominique Engle (Rutland, Mass.) was three spots behind her, clocking in at 24:20.10.
Engle will compete once again for the Hawks in 2019 and she will be joined on the course by NCAA veterans Samantha Matthews (Groveland, Mass.) and Maq Dimastrantonio (Shapleigh, Maine). Newcomers listed on the Hawks roster that will participate include captain Emily Ryan (Woburn, Mass.), Delaney Flanagan (Bedford, N.H.), Christine Toy (Standish, Maine) and Catie Callinan (Litchfield, Mass.).
The Saint Anselm men's program logged its first top-10 finish since 2010 at the NE10 Championship on Oct. 27, placing ninth out of 14 programs. Stankiewicz has watched his team grow over the course of the season and is eager to see his team's performance among the region's top teams this Saturday.
"[The men's program] has wanted to do something special all year and I think they have a very good chance to accomplish something like that," said Stankiewicz. "Our team has been focused all season in anticipation of Saturday's race."
The men's team checked in with its best finish at the NCAA Division II East Regional Championship in over a decade last season, placing 15th out of 24 programs. The Hawks had not placed lower than 18th since 2007 when Saint Anselm checked in 14th out of 19 teams competing at the regional race.
Then-sophomore Jordan Cook (Biddeford, Maine) led the Hawks with a time of 35:05.30, placing 59th in the field of 170 runners. He was followed by Anthony Galasso (Reading, Mass.) and his time of 35:38, placing 72nd. Cole Corcoran (Braintree, Mass.) also had a strong time of 36:50.90, placing just outside of the top-100 in the race with a 102nd place finish.
Galasso will make his fourth career NCAA appearance on Saturday while Cook, Trent Briggs (Westford, Mass.) and Ben Sweesy (Merrimack, N.H.) will compete for the third time in their careers. Corcoran will see action in his second race for the Hawks while freshmen Liam Reeve (Kittery, Maine) and Tom Nelson (Gorham, Maine) are making their first-ever appearance at the NCAA championship event.
