EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University will look to continue its successful men’s and women’s cross country seasons with a pair of strong performances at the PSAC Championships when the Warriors travel to California (Pa.) to take on the rest of the conference on Saturday.
ESU’s women’s team has been one of the surprises in the conference, attaining a No. 5 regional and No. 24 national ranking in the most recent USTFCCCA polls released this week. The Warriors were picked 12th in the PSAC’s preseason poll, the same spot where they finished a year ago.
On the men’s side, the No. 4-ranked team in the region will look to repeat its fourth-place finish from last season against a field that includes three of the top 15 teams in Division II.
Sophomore Rose Mascoli paces the Warriors’ women’s team and can become the squad’s first All-PSAC runner since Vanessa Andes in 2005. A two-time PSAC Athlete of the Week, Mascoli has finished in the top five of all five meets this season, including individual titles at the Don Cathcart Invitational and Nevins Invitational at ESU. She was 34th in the PSAC as a freshman and has aspirations of a top-10 finish this fall.
Senior Jonna Trexler, sophomores Corinne Fitzgerald, Cassandra Lacorazza and Bridget McCarron and freshmen Kim Lowry and Kim Wernerspach give ESU plenty of depth heading into a wide-open field. Trexler has had a strong senior season, including the runner-up spot at the Nevins Invitational, and Fitzgerald was second on the team behind Mascoli in the first four meets and was in the top five at both the Don Cathcart and Lafayette Invitationals.
Defending champion and No. 3-ranked Shippensburg should be the class of the conference, but the rest of the teams will line up knowing that a handful of points could mean the different between a spot in the top five or the top 10. The Warriors’ last top-five placement was in 2003 when they finished third, which is also the last time they were nationally-ranked.
The men’s team should be led by sophomore Amr Aldeen and junior Greg Laraia, who have been one-two on the team in their first five meets of the season. Laraia was 21st in the PSAC last season, one spot out of All-PSAC status. The Warriors will have to pick up some points gained last year by Frank Fezza, who was 12th but missed most of his sophomore season due to injury this fall and will not compete on Saturday.
Laraia has been one of ESU’s top two finishers in 14 of the 18 meets in which he has competed since the start of his freshman year and was second at both Fordham and the Don Cathcart Invitational this season. Aldeen should also contend for a spot in the top 20 after a strong sophomore campaign that has seen him move up in the Warriors’ pack.
A tight pack was the key to the men’s fourth-place finish in the PSAC last season, with their top five runners all placing in the top 33 – Fezza, Laraia, Michael Pereira and graduated seniors Kyle Weir and Pat Carr.
The same effort will be needed this weekend to maintain or improve on that spot from a group that includes senior Chris Zadroga, juniors Justin Kimbrough and Tom Zarnoch, sophomores Pereira, James Romano, Mike Saparito and Jared Wilson and freshman James Ward.
Shippensburg is also the defending men’s champion and is ranked No. 6 nationally by the USTFCCA, followed by Lock Haven (No. 9) and Edinboro (No. 14). The current top five teams in the regional rankings mirror the PSAC preseason poll, with ESU selected fourth and Slippery Rock fifth.
The PSAC Championships begin on Saturday with the men’s race (8K) at 10 a.m., followed by the women’s race (6K) at 11 a.m. Both races will be held at California’s George H. Roadman University Park.
The NCAA Atlantic Regional will be held on Saturday, November 20 in Cary, N.C., with the NCAA Division II Championships slated for Saturday, December 4 in Louisville, Ky.
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