Rakoc Leads Saint Men at Rochester Invitational
by:
Tara FreemanSam Rakoc was the top Saint finisher at the Rochester Invitational on Saturday
Senior Sam Rakoc finished 13th overall and fifth among Division III runners to help the St. Lawrence University men's cross country team to a solid sixth place finish in the 2012 University of Rochester Cross Country Invitational at Geneseo State Park on Saturday.
The race, a preview run for the 2012 NCAA Atlantic Regional which will be run on the same course in November, was won by Division I Cornell, which swept the top five places and took seventh and eighth as well. Sixth place went to an alumni runner from Rochester with Kenneth Janosko of Baldwin Wallace the top Division III finisher in ninth place.
Cornell won the team title with a perfect 15 points with Geneseo second with 105, Rochester third with 115, Dickinson fourth with 117, Cortland fifth with 128 and the Saints sixth with 186. The College of New Jersey (233), Buffalo State (266), Ithaca (273) and Fredonia (311) rounded out the top ten.
Rakoc ran 25:54.9 on the 8,000 meter course to lead the Saints. Zach Nelson was the second SLU finisher, running 26:20.7 to finish 40th and score 32nd with freshman Spencer Patterson finishing 50th in 26:27.4 and scoring 42nd. Sophomore Aaron Tompkins was the Saints' fourth finisher in 55th, scoring 46th with a time of 26:32.0 while Trevor Bibb completed the Saint top five with a 63rd place overall finish, scoring 53rd in 26:36.8.
Corey Hahnl finished 79th in 26:47.5, Jon Eng was 92nd in 26:57.3, freshmen Jeff Mogavero and Philip Marshall were 110th and 111th in 27:07.4 and 27:09.1, Landen Elliott-Knaggs was 119th in 27:17.6, Brendan Courneene was 126th in 27:21.0, Steven Petramale was 147th in 27:35.0, Scott Smolensky was 150th in 27:36.4 and Ellis Toll was 165th in a 333 runner field in 27:49.6.
The Saints are off next weekend and return to action at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh on Sept. 28.