Kings Park, N.Y. – The Bloomfield College women's cross country team continued it's award winning season picking up a second place trophy at the 15th Annual St. Joseph's College Invitational this past weekend held at Sunken Meadow Park. The Bears placed five individual runners in the top twenty-five to finish behind the event hosts, St Joseph's College by just 7 points (SJC 51 - BCB 58). The men's team took seventh place out of 28 total teams with three of the Bears runners within the top 38 spots.
Leading the way for the ladies was reigning CACC Runer of the Week, junior Petra Semelova (20:34.48) in second place, followed by senior Lissette Castillo (21:11.39) in sixth and freshman Stephanie Cuaycong (21:38.93 ) in thirteenth. Also finishing in the top twenty-five were senior Farheen Abbasi (16th - 21:43.29) and freshman D'Liyah Brown-Florence (21st - 22:05.74).
On the men's side, senior captain Luis Romero (28:01.00) led the Bears with a seventh place standing at Sunken Meadow Park. Rounding out Bloomfield College's top competitors were freshman James Menendez (36th - 30:10.00) and sophomore Isaac Rodriguez (38th - 30:13.50).
The men's combined total time was 2:32:11 with an average of 30:26.20 on the 8,000 meter course at Sunken Meadow, which featured 224 runners. The ladies total time was 1:47:14 and an average of 21:26.77 on the 5,000 meter trail that saw 230 runners.
The Bears now set their sights on the 2014 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship meet which will be held next Sunday, November 2nd in the city of Philadelphia. The men's and women's teams have never won a conference championship on either side. The Bloomfield College women have finished in the top 3 at every meet they've competed in this season including their first ever victory in program history at the Wilmington University Invitational on September 6th. Coach Smajlaj is optimistic about both teams heading into the conference championships commenting, "I'm proud of what we have been able to accomplish this season as a team. The men and women have bought into our program philosophy and if we stick together as we've practiced all year long, hopefully we can realize our goal of a CACC Championship."
Women's and Men's St. Joseph's College Race Results
