The Spartan Cross Country Team captured a fifth place team finish at the 2010 East Coast Conference Championship. Freshman Mike Galonski's fifth place finish in 26:10 earned him individual recognition as a first team all conference selection.
Galonski was just 6 seconds shy of his personal best. He established himself as the dominant force of the Spartan squad as a freshman, finishing first for STAC in every competition this season. Graduate student Einar Brissing was the second scorer for the Spartans. He finished in 18th place in a time of 27:45. Classmate Vinny Modafferi stayed with Brissing for the majority of the race. The two used their experience and worked off one another to keep their positions with Modafferi crossing the line in 28:04. Freshman Mike Kraus ran a personal best 28:05 which was nearly 30 seconds faster then his previous best. Sophomore Garvenchy Nicolas (29:59) finished in 34th place. He closed out the scoring for the Spartans.
Freshmen Kyle Curran, Jon Laszlo and Matt Buell were the next three STAC runners to finish in 30:08, 30:37 and 30:46 respectively. Chris McKenna was the next to cross the line in 32:25. Junior Matt Muniz finished in 34:38 and senior Dan Nilsen crossed the line in 37:07.
Head Coach Nicole Ballou commented, "The future of the men's cross country program is very promising. We had a lot of our younger runners step up throughout the season and I am looking forward to watching them progress. We have eight runners returning next season after gaining a great deal of experience this year. They have proven that they are ready for the challenge."
The Spartans return to action on Sunday, November 21st at the NCAA East Regional at Frankilin Park in Boston, MA.