NEW YORK, October 22, 2006 – Freshmen Melissa Tempesta of New Haven and Joseph Parks of C.W. Post won the women's and men's East Coast Conference Cross Country Championships individual titles, respectively, today at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, NY. In the team event, Adelphi captured the women's title, and the men's race finished in a tie for first place for the first time in conference history, as Adelphi and C.W. Post, were crowned ECC Co-Champions. Tempesta completed the 5K course in 19:40, as she won the race by 11 seconds over second place finisher, Natalie Johnson of C.W. Post. Adelphi's Danielle Connor took third place with a time of 19:53. AU won the women's race with 36 points as they placed all of their top five runners in the first 10 scoring positions. C.W. Post was second as a team in the women's race with 57 points, and New Haven was third with 59 points. Parks' 26:13 time over the 8K course was 33 ahead of second place finisher Jaime Julia Perez of Adelphi.
C.W. Post and Adelphi tied for the top spot in the men's race with 36 points. New Haven took third place in the men's event with 66 points. Adelphi finished in the number 2, 3, 9, 10 and 12 scoring places; while
C.W. Post took the number 1, 4, 7, 8, 16 scoring places in the men's race. For their efforts, first place finishers, Tempesta and Parks were named ECC Female and Male Runners of the Year and ECC Rookies of Year.
Rounding out the Top-10 for women were, junior Kerri Drennan of C.W. Post (4th place, 20:03), freshman Priscah Kiprop of NYIT (5th place, 20:06), junior Ify Anene of Adelphi (6th place, 20:07), junior Alissa von Schmidt of New Haven (7th place, 20:12), Lindsay LaFleuer of Adelphi (8th place,
20:51), Heather Troutman of Adelphi (9th place, 21:10) and Danielle Rita of Molloy (10th place, 21:23).
On the men's side, Adelphi's Matt Despensa (JR) took third place with a time of 26:58, and he was joined in rest of the Top 10 by teammates Aaron Warner (JR) in ninth place (27:58) and Carlos Techera (SO) in tenth (28:03). C.W. Post's senior Max Collado took fourth place with a time of 27:11, and he was joined in the remainder of the Top 10 by fellow Pioneers', junors Mike Marrone (7th place, 27:43) and Sean Mahon (8th place, 27:49). Two New Haven runners, both juniors, Christopher
Blackistone (5th place, 27:12) and James Beaubrun (6th place, 27:24) completed the first 10 male finishers.
Adelphi head coach Adam Siepola was named ECC Women's Coach of the Year, and he shared the ECC Men's Coach of the Year award with C.W. Post's head coach Rich Degnan.
