Results
NEWARK, NJ – The NJIT men's and women's cross country teams hosted the ninth annual NJIT Classic Sunday afternoon at Branch Brook Park. Previously, NJIT has hosted the meet at the famous Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
Team Nexus mentor Dr John Egan was the honorary race starter for both events. Visiting teams at the NJIT Classic were Hofstra, Saint Peter's, and Long Island.
Junior Ewelina Marut captured the title on the women's side finishing the 5k run with a time of 19:12.53 while Brian Mendez was the winner on the men's side of the 8k run with a time of 25:42.87.
Ewelina was followed by a tight pack consisting of Megan Higgins taking third at 20:13, followed by Maryam Haque (20:15), Catherine Cohen (20:16.77), Kayla Howell (20:20.70), Ybranhina Cohen (20:25.24) and Breanne Hollenbach (20:40.87).
Amanda Hefferan placed 11th with a time of 20:53 and Esther Alfaro crossed the finish line at 21:06.89.
The team averaged 20:03 which is best team average ever on the branch brook course (previous best of 20:20 was in 2010).
NJIT defeated St Peters 19-44, LIU 15-50 and Hofstra 15-50. (lower score wins, with 15 being a perfect score). NJIT placed 7 runners in the top 8 spots to secure the wins.
NJIT's Daniel Rondon and Christian Baumbach placed third and fourth on the men's side with a time of 26:28.11 and 27:18.37. Miguel Tlatelpa and Joseph Ju finished side by side at 27:30.22 and 27:44.21. Drew Reinhardt placed ninth at 28:23.37 for the Highlanders. This was the first time that Drew broke 30 minutes.
The team averaged 26:56 for the best team average. NJIT defeated St Peters 17-43 and LIU 19-41
"I was very pleased by how the women ran today. They are ahead of where I expected them to be at this point of the season especially since we have been dealing with some early season injuries." head coach Al Alonso stated.
"Brian is off to a great start. The men appear to be right where they are suppose to be at this point in their training plan."
The NJIT men's cross country team will return to action on Friday, September 30 at the Paul Short Invitational.
