The St. Thomas Aquinas cross country team took 1st at the NJIT Highlander Challenge at Branch Brook Park. Sophomore Katie O'Grady set the pace while setting the new Spartan 5K record of 18:40. STAC had 5 finishers in the top 15 and 9 finishers in the top 25.
O'Grady broke the record of 2014 graduate Keeley Bateman (18:45). She finished the race in 4th place. Redshirt sophomore Meaghan Ventarola finished just 8 seconds later in 5th place. Freshman Kristen Borriello took 8th place in 19:07. Junior Gabby Sloezen crossed the line in 19:21 and senior Ashley Weintraub broke into the top 5 recording a 19:30. All five of the times are collegiate personal records. "This was a great team win," commented Head Coach Nicole Ballou. "We had a lot of people step up and run their best times. I am very proud of Katie for breaking the record and even more excited about her future as a Lady Spartan. Ashley was a key in securing today's win. We have a deep team this year and a great pool of talent. Each race, we have different people in scoring positions."
For the men, senior Joe Chegwidden was the first Spartan finisher in 26:25. Freshmen Vinny Vazquez ran a collegiate best 26:44. Classmate Asaad Jeffrey and sophomore Ryan Gasser worked together crossing the line in 27:49 and 27:50 respectively. Sophomore Jamer Linares came through at 28:17 to finish the Spartan scorers. These times were collegiate bests for Vazquez, Gasser and Linares. The team notched a 5th place finish overall.
The Spartans return to action next weekend at the CTC Championship in Philadelphia, PA.