LINCOLN, R.I. – Placing four runners among the top seven finishers, the Wentworth Institute of Technology men's cross country team recorded 34 points and captured the 2014 Tri-State Invitational. The team title was the first ever for the Leopards, who are in their inaugural season as a varsity program.
The Leopards' 34 points was tops among the nine competing schools as Eastern Connecticut (63) and Mass. Maritime (75) rounded out the top three teams.
Freshmen Patrick Hopkins (Lansdale, Pa.) and Dan McSolla (Bridgewater, Mass.) finished second and third, respectively, just 28 hundredths of a second separating the two. Hopkins covered the eight kilometer course in 27:20.02 while McSolla finished in 27:20.30.
Classmates Stephen Gencarelli (Westerly, R.I.) and Alex Robbins (Mansfield, Mass.) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, as Gencarelli finished with a time of 28:04 and Robbins in a time of 28:10. Junior Kyle Schwartz (South Windsor, Conn.) finished in 16th place with a time of 29:19 to round out Wentworth's top five finishers.
Freshman Clay Harman (Broad Brook, Conn.) finished 24th with a time of 29:55, classmate Zach Howey (Pitman, N.J.) was 33rd with a time of 30:19, sophomore David Ouellette (Wells, Maine) recorded a time of 30:30 to finish 40th, and freshman Noah Conti (Swampscott, Mass.) was 43rd after recording a time of 30:42.
Sophomores Ben Cautela (Norwood, Mass.) and Mike Zanni (Reading, Mass.) finished within three seconds of each other as Cautela ran a time of 32:45 to finish 60th and Zanni had a time of 32:47 to finish 61st. Classmate Brian Ferullo (Pelham, N.H.) finished with a time of 36:51 to finish 90th among the 102 entrants.
Wentworth will compete at the Saints Invitational on October 17 at Boston's Franklin Park.