By Taylor Nigrelli
Assistant Sports Editor
The men and women’s cross country teams ran their way to 10th and sixth place finishes, respectively, this weekend at the Gettysburg Invitational. Forty one teams participated in the meet; Lock Haven University was the overall winner of the men’s race while Shippensburg College was first in the women’s race.
The meet featured mostly Division II teams but Coach Bob Macfarlane said this does not take away from the team’s success.
“You have to realize that a few years ago St. Bonaventure was getting beaten by a lot of Division III teams,” Macfarlane said. “A lot of the (Division II) teams we faced this weekend were very competitive. For example, Lock Haven and Slippery Rock are ranked nationally.”
For the third consecutive race, freshman Kerry Caher led the way for the women’s team with a time of 23:16 in the 6k race. The time extended her own St. Bonaventure record and put her 16th overall in the race. Junior Kady Weisner, freshman Aubrie Russell and sophomore Hannah Robinson finished second, third and fourth for the Bonnies, respectively and also earned top five times in St. Bonaventure women’s history.
Sophomore Harley Thompson finished first for the men for the second time in as many meets. Thompson finished in 26:59, the fifth best time in St. Bonaventure men’s history. Macfarlane has been expecting performances like this out of Thompson since he recruited him.
“Harley is finally coming into his own,” Macfarlane said. “He ran hurt all last year, but he got surgery in the offseason, and he’s finally running like the Harley we always knew he was capable of being.”
Freshmen Joe Ferencik, Kevin Sidoran and Caleb Lecker all finished in the top five for the Brown and White. Macfarlane has been pleasantly surprised with some of their performances.
“We knew coming in that Joe could be a top three runner just because of what kind of athlete he is,” Macfarlane said. “But Kevin Sidoran, what a pleasant surprise. We weren’t expecting this, we were expecting him to be in the top ten but for him to be our number three runner is fantastic. .”
Eight of the 11 runners on the men’s team ran their personal best Saturday. One of those runners was junior transfer Chris Spiker.
After attending Quinnipiac University for his first semester in 2010, Spiker transferred to St. Bonaventure last year. Academic factors were important to Spiker in his decision to attend St. Bonaventure.
“Quinnipiac wasn’t the fit I was looking for coming out of high school,” Spiker said. “As soon as I visited St. Bonaventure, I knew I had to come here. When I visited, I learned about the journalism program and all the connections it had. That was major factor for me.”
Another reason Spiker was drawn to St. Bonaventure was the closeness of the cross country team which reminded him of his high school team.
“I believed in what Coach Ring and Macfarlane were trying to build,” Spiker said. “It resembled my team in high school. It was a pretty small, low key running club type deal.”
Because of NCAA transfer rules, he was unable to compete last year, but was allowed to practice with the team. Spiker’s times have improved steadily since the beginning of last season, culminating in a 28:49 finish at Gettysburg last week. According to Macfarlane, the key to Spiker’s improvement was not physical.
“His attitude has changed so much in just the one year,” Macfarlane said. “That has been the focal point of his improvement. He’s become more confident as well because he’s put the time in during the offseason to get better.”
With former top runner Nick Masiello out for the season with a leg injury, a spot has opened up to join the top seven in traveling to Northeast Regionals. Spiker hopes to fill that spot, depending on his performance in Atlantic 10 Championships. He hopes to run his personal record again in the meet.
“I’m hoping to run a 28:30 at the least,” Spiker said. “I think, with the increase in competition I should be able to run under 28:30. Maybe if everything goes right. With perfect race conditions and the perfect storm, maybe I’ll hit 28 flat.”
