{"id":6324,"date":"2013-11-01T08:46:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T08:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/cross-country-returns-to-binghamton-for-conference-championship\/"},"modified":"2013-11-01T08:46:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T08:46:26","slug":"cross-country-returns-to-binghamton-for-conference-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/cross-country-returns-to-binghamton-for-conference-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross Country Returns to Binghamton for Conference Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Cross Country Returns to Binghamton for Conference Championship<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Championship Central<\/span><\/p>\n

ALBANY, N.Y. \u2013<\/strong> After two and a half months of training and four weekends of competition, the University at Albany men\u2019s and women\u2019s cross country teams find themselves on the cusp of the America East Conference Championship.\u00a0\u00a0 A season\u2019s worth of effort will culminate this weekend on the course where the year kicked off in September.<\/span><\/p>\n

The men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams return to Vestal, New York on Saturday where Binghamton will host the conference championship races.\u00a0 The Bearcats hosted the inaugural race of the season, the America East Pre-Conference Meet, back in September.\u00a0 The UAlbany women took the team title in that race, which featured five of eight America East squads. \u00a0Senior Brittney Lane won the individual title as well, leading a group of five UAlbany runners finishing in the top 10, and helping the Danes edge out a three-point victory over Vermont.<\/span><\/p>\n

The men\u2019s team placed fourth overall in their Pre-Conference race. \u00a0Junior Christopher Buchanan finished sixth overall in the individual competition.\u00a0 Although Buchanan was the only UAlbany runner to finish in the top 10, the men kept a solid group together, resulting in the three, four, five, and six runners finishing within eight seconds of each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

A year ago, both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams finished fourth at the conference championship.\u00a0 Lane finished second overall for the women, and Ethan Clary, a senior last year, finished fourth overall for the men.\u00a0 Aliaksandr Leuchanka, also a senior in 2012, finished 10th individually in the men\u2019s race.\u00a0 With Lane returning and Clary and Leuchanka graduating, the expectations for the men\u2019s team and the women\u2019s team have been altered somewhat, with respect to their performances in 2012 and the particular talents of the 2013 squads.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, the men and women will have different objectives, specific to each team,\u201d said head coach Matt Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

The women will look to Lane and teammate Silvia Del Fava to lead them this weekend.\u00a0 Lane has crossed the line first on the team in three of four races this season, and Del Fava was the top UAlbany finisher in the other.\u00a0 In that race, Del Fava recorded the fastest time of the season, which was also the second fastest time ever for 6K in UAlbany history.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe best the women have finished at the championships meet is third, and the goal this weekend is to improve on that,\u201d said Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

The women have already achieved one of the goals Jones had for the team this season.\u00a0 The women earned their first ever Northeast Regional ranking in the final poll of the 2012 season.\u00a0 This year, they were unranked in the preseason and Week 1 polls, but broke into the mix in Week 2 at #15.\u00a0 The women have maintained that position since Week 2, and UAlbany is one of four Northeast ranked teams competing this weekend.\u00a0 The others are #9 Stony Brook, #10 New Hampshire, and #14 Vermont. \u00a0Stony Brook has won each of the last six women\u2019s championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really looking at three other teams: Stony Brook, New Hampshire, and Vermont.\u00a0 I think New Hampshire has the most depth, and I think we match up best with Stony Brook head-to-head,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

UAlbany will face off against Stony Brook and New Hampshire for the first time this season, but they\u2019ve raced Vermont twice already, with each team earning a victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you throw Vermont into the picture, we\u2019ve beaten them already.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll have to see how their runners break up the others.\u00a0 We\u2019re stronger up front, but if they get a pack in there they can do some damage,\u201d said Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know what to expect,\u201d Jones continued. \u00a0\u201cStony Brook was better up front than New Hampshire in Boston, but New Hampshire improved from that performance when they raced at New England\u2019s.\u00a0 And we feel we match up well with Stony Brook, so it\u2019s difficult to predict.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Positioning will be important for the Danes this weekend.\u00a0 High individual finishes are important, but even more important is the need to keep everyone close together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect Lane and Del Fava to be up front.\u00a0 Kathryn Fanning\u2019s performance compared to other teams\u2019 third runners is important.\u00a0 We\u2019re still missing out traditional number four, Jessica Donohue, so that hurts us a bit.\u00a0 What is critical is how the fours and fives place.\u00a0 Really, if we can hold the gap between our first and fifth runner to about a minute we\u2019ll be in good shape,\u201d said Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Jones described a different objective for the men\u2019s team.\u00a0 The men will see the return of their traditional number two, John DeLallo, who was sidelined with an injury for much of the season.\u00a0 Consequently, he\u2019s missed a lot of training, but his return gives the squad a greater sense of cohesion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBuchanan should be up front, and we\u2019re hoping DeLallo can give us a small boost,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWith the men, we are hoping to finish in the top half in the team competition.\u00a0 We don\u2019t necessarily have the talent up front, but we\u2019re capable of having five to seven guys packed in close together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUMBC and Binghamton are probably the favorites on the men\u2019s side.\u00a0 And Maine has some frontrunners so they could be in the mix too,\u201d added Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

America East teams are not required to participate in the Pre-Conference meet, but UAlbany made the trip to get a feel for the season\u2019s championship course.\u00a0 The experience they gained by familiarizing themselves with the course should come in handy on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we ran here in September it was hot and new and it was our first race,\u201d said Jones.\u00a0 \u201cWhatever the conditions on the course, I think we will be okay.\u00a0 We\u2019ve really improved our fitness since the first meet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross Country Returns to Binghamton for Conference Championship Championship Central ALBANY, N.Y. \u2013 After two and a half months of training and four weekends of competition, the University at Albany men\u2019s and women\u2019s cross country teams find themselves on the cusp of the America East Conference Championship.\u00a0\u00a0 A season\u2019s worth of effort will culminate this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[1901,1553,1910,1767,1900,2613],"class_list":["post-6324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-binghamton","tag-championship","tag-conference","tag-country","tag-cross","tag-returns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}