Sea Gulls open with strong showing at Winterplace Park
SALISBURY, Md. - The Salisbury University men's and women's cross country teams each posted top four finishes in the Sea Gull Opener, their first meet of the year, held at Winterplace Park. The men's team earned 41 points to take second place, while the women grabbed fourth with 97 points.
The Messiah College's men's team took the meet win with 26 points, Rowan University placed third with 63 points followed by Shenandoah University (126 points), Waynesburg University (136) and Philadelphia Biblical University (172).
Messiah also claimed the women's title, with 29 points. Rowan finished second (46 points), followed by Shenandoah (95), Salisbury, Waynesburg (127), Philadelphia Biblical (184), Marymount University (209), Neumann University (232) and Anne Arundel Community College (238).
Salisbury junior Kristen Stromberg (Hampstead, Md.) began the women's race in second place in the first straight-away before falling behind a pack of Messiah runners. Following the first lap, Stromberg and Masha Berge (Potomac, Md.) found themselves in the mix in the top 10.
Rowan's Jen Rawls finished the six-kilometer race first with a time of 21:47. Stromberg finished 11th overall with a time of 23:57, and was followed closely by Berge, as she finished the race in 18th place in a time of 24:33. Finishing 22nd overall, Jennifer Musumeci (Beachwood, N.J.) earned a time of 25:11. Becca Stinner (Darnestown, Md.) and Emily Powell (Mt. Airy, Md.) rounded out the top five Sea Gull finishers, as they completed the race with times of 25:16 and 25:22, respectively.
On the men's side, Salisbury's top five performers finished the eight-kilometer race in the top 12 runners. The maroon and gold were paced by senior Travis Boccher (Columbia, Md.), as he finished fourth overall with a time of 26:43. During the first lap, which took the runners through the wooded trail, the race was led by Tyler Newhook and Peter Shenk of Messiah College, followed by Boccher in third. Newhook and Shenk earned first and second place, as they finished the race in 26:18 and 26:27, respectively.
The second Sea Gull across the finish line was senior Carl Blickle (Woolwich Twp, N.J.), who came home in fifth, with a time of 26:49. Steve Berstler (Chester, N.J.), finished in a time of 27:07 and SU's top five was rounded out by a pair of Sea Gulls including junior Chris Barnard (Olney, Md.) and sophomore Trevor Keen (Crownsville, Md).
"It's great for our young teams to get their first competition under their belt," Salisbury coach Jim Jones said. "[They] worked very hard in practice this week and were tired today. The hard work we put in will pay off for us in November."
The maroon and gold will next travel to Hunt Valley, Md., to compete in the Towson University Invitational on Sept. 12.
