Race Results

CLINTON, NY (September 12, 2009) -- Coming off last week's decisive victory at the Vassar Invitational, the Vassar men's cross country team faced a stiffer test at the Hamilton Invitational, as the host Continentals were ranked 9th in the Atlantic Region coming into today's race. However, Hamilton's star, Division III National Champion Peter Kosgei, dropped out of the race at mile one, opening the door for the Brewers to knock off Hamilton and the rest of the field. Vassar finished with 34 points and Hamilton with 38.

The Brewers were once again led by junior Jon Erickson, who for the second week in a row, just missed an individual victory by a nose, placing second in 19:40 on the 6-kilometer course. Hamilton sophomore James Grobey took the individual victory in 19:38.

Vassar's freshman class continued an auspicious start to their collegiate racing careers. Yaron Teich ran in the lead pack for the entire race, placing 4th in 19:45. Sam Wagner improved his time by 85 seconds from last week, placing 8th overall in 20:08.

Pack running was key to Vassar's victory. Working with Wagner were sophomores Will Healy and Matt Blair, who finished in 20:17 and 20:25, respectively. Today's result marks the second straight top-ten finish for Healy in as many college cross-country races, and Blair followed up last week's 11th place finishes with another, this one 74 seconds faster than the previous week's result.

Rounding out the scoring seven for the Brewers were sophomore Zach Williams and senior Danny McBee, who stuck together for the majority of the race. Williams finished 13th overall in 20:28, and McBee in 15th with a time of 20:32, with Hamilton's fifth runner in between.

Head Coach James McCowan noted the performance of Vassar's fifth through tenth runners, as the spread between their first finisher and the middle of the pack was much smaller today than in recent years, and their performance was critical to the team's victory.

“I can't remember the last time we had our first through seventh runners only separated by 52 seconds,” said McCowan. “Our 8th through 10th guys were right there as well, working together, and are capable of getting in the mix as well. Hamilton is a regionally ranked team, and we matched up with them, man for man, from the opening gun. Even when the pack broke up, for the most part, the guys ran in small groups or teams, pushing each other through.”

McCowan also stressed where the Brewers are in their preparation. “It's still early for us, but this shows our competition that despite the guys we lost, we're in position to outperform what we did last year.”

Also having strong races for the Brewers were sophomore Evan Russek (19th, 20:43), senior Dan Liebowitz (20th, 20:44) and sophomore Justin Rupert (23rd, 21:07), making his 2009 debut after a pre-season injury.

Rounding out the team scoring was Nazareth College in 3rd with 74 points, Union College in 4th with 91 points, and D'Youville with 155 points. The field totaled 55 runners.

Vassar men's cross country will next be in action on September 25th at the Stevens Invitational.