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Johnson & Wales Picked to Top the GNAC in Men's Cross Country

The 2008 and 2009 GNAC Champion, Johnson & Wales University, earned a top rank in this year’s men’s cross country pre-season poll. JWU picked up 47 points in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference coaches’ poll. Norwich, last year’s GNAC championship runner-up took a second place finish with 45 points, and Emerson earned a third place finish in coaches’ poll with 36 points. This year’s GNAC Championship will take place at St. Joseph’s College of Maine, on October 30, 2010.

Johnson & Wales Picked to Top the GNAC in Men's Cross Country
September 5, 2010
By: Natalie West
Dir. of Communications

The 2008 and 2009 GNAC Champion, Johnson & Wales University, earned a top rank in this year's men's cross country pre-season poll. JWU picked up 47 points in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference coaches' poll. Norwich, last year's GNAC championship runner-up took a second place finish with 45 points, and Emerson earned a third place finish in coaches' poll with 36 points.  This year's GNAC Championship will take place at St. Joseph's College of Maine, on October 30, 2010. 

  1. Johnson & Wales (47)
  2. Norwich (45)
  3. Emerson (36)

 

1. Johnson & Wales

Johnson & Wales looks to return to another top place finish this season after returning most of their squad from last year. Sophomore, Greg Redfield, will lead the pack for Wildcats after a stellar rookie season. The 2009 GNAC Runner and Rookie of the year finished first last year in the GNAC Championship with a time of 27:14.8 and also was selected to run in the NCAA D.III 2009 Championship and finished the 8,000 meter course with a time of 27:16 finishing 173rd in a field of 276 runners. Juniors James Vance, Nathan Smith, Kyle Reiss and sophomore Jeff Hartman will all be returning, who achieved spots on the 2009 all-conference team. The Wildcats start their season on September 11th at the Roger Williams Invitational.

 

2. Norwich

The Cadets look to continue their success this season with several of their top runners. Although losing John Pomeroy to graduation, senior captain Michael Monaghan and senior Michael Christopher will step up and lead the team for the 2010 season. After placing 30th at NCAA Regionals in 2009 Last year, Monaghan finished 17th (29:36.10), while Christopher placed 18th (29:52.83) in NCAA's. Sophomores Joseph Rosenthal and Richard Well and junior John Haywood will also be as top finishers in the 2010 squad. The Cadets start their season on September 4th at the Keene State Alumni Invitational at 11:00am.

 

3. Emerson

The Lions hope to have another run at this year's 2010 GNAC title after a very successful second place finish in 2009. Leading the charge for Emerson, will be GNAC All-Conference runners sophomore Kyle Oppenheimer and junior Brandon Fox.  Oppenheimer took a fourth place finish at GNAC's last year, surrounded by JWU runners who took the other top five spots. Also sophomore John Cico had a strong GNAC finish at 13th and was a great competitor during the '09 season. Head Coach John Furey is also looking forward to the incoming freshmen, Brendan Stackhouse and Kyle Haley, to bring additional depth to the Lions' 2010 team. The Lions begin their season on September 4th against Emmanuel and Wheelock in Boston, MA (Franklin Park) at 10:30am.