Newark, NJ: The Cyclones Men's and Women's Cross-Country teams stayed close to home racing in Newark's Branchburg Park on Saturday, Oct 7th. The NJIT Highlander XC Challenge hosted 29 complete Men's teams and 26 complete Women's teams across Divisions 1, 2 and 3. Centenary's Women's team raced first - taking 24thplace - while the Men's team raced second - taking 28th. Both races started under what could only be described as "cyclone-type weather", with dark clouds, swirling winds, and heavy downpours at both starts, making for very muddy and slippery course conditions.  

Women's 

Despite the challenges of the course and weather, the Lady Cyclones toed the line with 220 runners and fought the traffic the entire race. First year Jillian Ulanowski led the team covering the wet 5K course in a time of 24:24.1 (a lifetime best). Sophomore Ariana Ramirez  was second for the squad in her first competition of the season, racing to a 26:53.3. while the Women's Captain, Senior Kelly Ann Earrusso was right behind in 26:56.6 (another lifetime best). Junior Emma Darnsteadtraced at her best pace of the year to get a time of 28:24.1.  Junior Carolyn Rosenberg's 31:07.5 time took 2:22 off her lifetime best. Junior Lena Lutcza also raced at her fastest pace ever, finishing in 31:25.1. Coach Regan said "To have three lifetime bests and two season-best paces in the same race demonstrates how hard these ladies have been working. These were not good conditions, but they just put their heads down and went to work! I'm so excited for these ladies to see how much further they can go!"

Men's

Starting under even worse conditions, the Men's 1:00 pm race had 234 runners stretching across the starting line. Centenary Sophomore Jarod Gajda covered the sloppy 8K course in a time of 32:23.6 earning a lifetime best by 2:19. Senior Jared Aponte followed closely in a personal season best 34:03.9.Sophomore Gabe Lentzner also earned a season best finishingin a time of 36:15.6. Less than a second behind was the Men'sCaptain, Junior John Triana (36:16.4) racing to a lifetime best by 40 seconds. Sophomore Josh Pinkhasov was the team's 5thplace finisher, also setting a lifetime best in 38:07.7. Both Junior Jibran Uddin (43:56.5) and Junior Travis Austin (44:46.6)crushed their lifetime bests by over 5 minutes and 4 minutes respectively. Afterwards, Coach Regan pointed out "Despite the tough conditions, made worse with every stride on the course, we had 8 Lifetime PR's, 2 Season PR's and 2 more lifetime bestper mile paces. That kind of improvement reflects the dedication every one of these athletes are making, the effort to get better each day and the self-discipline to be driven. Not even the heavy rain and slippery footing could prevent these improvements. And all the family support we received today was awesome! A big 'Thank You!' for coming out in these conditions."

Up Next

The team's next meet will be at the Regional Border Battle in Glassboro, NJ this coming Saturday, Oct 14th.