BOSTON – After two straight years at Van Cortlandt Park, the NCAA Northeast Regional Cross Country Championships returned to another historic location—Boston's Franklin Park—on Friday afternoon. Competing against regionally- and nationally-ranked foes, the Manhattan College men's and women's teams both put forth a good effort. The Jasper men finished 26th in the team standings, while the women placed 29th as a team.
The men ran 10,000 meters, two kilometers longer than the standard distance. Tom Diliberto (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) was Manhattan's top finisher. He completed the course in 32:11.5 to grab 72nd place. Amir Khaghani (Bethesda, Md.) was the next Jasper across the line. He finished 121st in 32:56.2. The rest of Manhattan's seven-man team was tightly bunched, as all seven runners placed within the top 200 in a field of nearly 250. John Dove (Monroe, N.Y.) was 161st in 33:28.1, while Chris Orlando's (Newburyport, Mass.) time of 33:33.2 was good for 165th place. Joseph Lundberg (Freehold, N.J.) took 185th with a 33:48.3 clocking, with Nick Matson (Clifton Park, N.Y.) (194th, 34:03.9) and Shane Beyer (Brick, N.J.) (196th, 34:05.3) completing the scoring for Manhattan.
With 704 points (a 240-point improvement from 2014), the Jaspers placed 26th of 37 teams. Nationally-ranked Syracuse, which had the top three finishers, and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) champion Iona, which placed four in the top 10, earned the top two spots and automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament.
On the women's side, Manhattan also had a strong showing. All seven Jaspers placed higher than Manhattan's No. 2 runner in 2014, and they were separated at the finish line by just over a minute. Lisa Fajardo (Brooklyn, N.Y.) paced the squad with a 125th-place effort. She completed the 6000-meter course in 22:56.9. Lorraine Brancale (Staten Island, N.Y.) was 132nd in 23:04.3, while Erin Spadaccini (Wilmington, Del.) took 137th in 23:08.4. Samantha Manalastas (Smithtown, N.Y.) (181st, 23:52.4) and Kaitlyn Smith (Effort, Pa.) (186th, 23:56.0), the only two Manhattan women in the race who also ran at Regionals last year, rounded out the team's top five. They were followed closely by Keeley Hogan (Delmar, N.Y.) in 191st (23:59.6) and Sam Hoagland (Colts Neck, N.J.) in 201st (24:09.1). There were more than 250 finishers in the women's race.
Manhattan's team score of 761 gave the Jaspers 29th place in the 38-team field by one point over Central Connecticut. Providence and Syracuse secured trips to Nationals by capturing the top two spots, while Dartmouth's Dana Giordano was the individual winner.
There is one meet remaining before the Jaspers turn their attention to the indoor season. Manhattan returns to Van Cortlandt Park for the annual ECAC/IC4A Championships next Saturday.