Springfield Women and Coast Guard Men Win Smith Cross Country Invitational

Northampton, MA: The Springfield women placed four runners in the top ten while the Bears of Coast Guard swept the first five places to win the women's and men's races today on Smith's 5k course.

Junior Amanda Dipaolo (Garrison, NY) of Springfield was the women's individual winner in 19:55.52 while Coast Guard senior Mike Persun (Hershey, PA) took the men's title in 16:32.82.

Finishing first for Lasell was Kayla McKenna (Warwick, RI) who led with a time of 23:11:00.   McKenna finished 48th overall out of 176  runners.  Also having an impressive finish for the Lasers was first year student Meghan Missett (Lowell, MA) who ran a time of 24:16:00 and placed 71st overall.  Missett was the second Laser to finish on the women's team, and took nearly a minute off her previous finishing time.

For the men, Chris Johnson (Gloucester, MA) led the Lasers, finishing with a time of 18:51 and placing 48th overall.  Close behind Johnson were fellow Lasers Zach Lambert (Marlborough, MA) and David Walsh (Springfield, MA) placing 66th and 79th.  Lambert ran a 19:27, while Walsh finished with a 19:44.  There were 144 athletes who participated in the men's race.

Overall, the women's team finished in 11th place, and the men's team finished in 10th, scoring 320 and 254 points respectively.  The overall winners for the women's team was the Pride of Springfield College, scoring 32 points, followed by Smith (59), Westfield State (75), Wellesley (119), Coast Guard (163), Mount Holyoke (179), Lesley (198), Clark (251), Castleton State (288), Norwich (307), Lasell (320), Western New England (336), Saint Joseph (CT) (346), Elms (413), New England (458), Mitchell (475) and Southern Vermont (499).

In the men's race, Coast Guard scored 15 followed by Westfield State (55), Springfield (116), Western New England (139), Norwich (141), Clark (175), Castleton State (189), New England (216), Mitchell (250), Lasell (254), MCLA (304), Southern Vermont (325) and Elms (402).