Cross Country
The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Atlantic 10 Championship in Pittsburgh, Pa., last weekend. The women’s team finished eighth overall, while the men placed 12th.
The women improved three spots from last year’s A-10 performance. Junior Laura Coyer, whose time of 19:05 in the 5K race placed her 25th overall, paced the team.
“Overall, it went well; we knew it was going to be a tough course, but we’re a tough group of girls so we knew we could perform well out there,” said Coyer.
Following Coyer was sophomore Mary Moloney, who finished 33rd in the race with a time of 19:24. Senior Meaghan McCallin, sophomore Lauren Verzal, freshman Lauren Peabody and senior Anissa Reynolds rounded out the scoring for the Bills.
For the second straight year, the men finished 12th in the conference. Junior Steve Vargas led the pack, covering the 8K course with a time of 27:02, which placed him 53rd in the meet.
Senior Paul Lemon was close behind, finishing 59th with a time of 27:08. Junior Mat Stuber and sophomore Matt McKenney claimed the fourth and fifth spots for the Bills. Freshmen Neal Rodrigues and John Menchella, along with senior Jason Genta, scored for the Bills.
La Salle took both the men’s and women’s championships over the weekend. For the women, it was their third straight crown behind the conference’s first three-time indivdual winner, senior Rachel Papin. The team placed four runners on the all-conference squad. The men’s title was their fifth in six years. Senior Sean Quigley of La Salle won his second-straight conference title.
The team will run in what will likely be its final meet of the year in the NCAA Regional in Minneapolis on Nov. 11. The women’s team will send its top seven runners while Vargas, Lemon and Stuber, who was named Academic All-Conference, will represent the Billiken men.
“Last year we placed 23rd out of 25 teams. We’re hoping to beat eight or nine more teams and place in the top 15. It would be the best finish for a SLU team,” said Coyer.
Field Hockey
The field hockey team wrapped up its season this weekend with a loss to conference juggernaut Richmond. The 5-0 loss brought the Billikens’ final record to 7-9 for the year, with a 3-4 mark in conference play.
The Spiders, ranked 17th in the nation, have won the last four A-10 crowns and were a spotless 7-0 in the conference.
The Bills finished in a tie for fifth place in the conference, just one spot out of a place in the A-10 Championship tournament.
It was the second straight year the Bills finished just outside of the championship race-last season they lost a tiebreaker, which prematurely ended their season.
But for first-year coach Marcie Boyer, this year can still be safely labeled a success. The team was picked to finish dead last in the preseason and scrapped their way into contention all the way until this weekend’s final game.
“We were picked to finish at the bottom, but we fought our way up with hard work. The determination of all the players on our squad allowed us to exceed the expectations of others,” said Boyer.
“We saw that preseason poll and it fired up that we were ranked so low,” said Lueders.
This was the first time the field-hockey team has managed to string together back-to-back seven-win seasons since 1990 and 1991.
Boyer will look to continue the team’s rise up the conference totem pole by integrating another strong recruiting classes with an off-season of intense training.
Hopefully, next year the Billikens can qualify for that spot in the tournament, which has narrowly eluded them these past two seasons.
“With the exception of Richmond, which has a dominant squad every year, it is going to be a dogfight for those last three spots,” said Boyer.
“We need to challenge each other at practice. We’re starting to play teams with higher skill levels and we need to bring up our game to their level,” said Lueders.
Lueders, who has led the team in scoring these past two seasons, still has one year of elgibility left. She will lead a strong group of returning players, including their star goalkeeper, junior Amy Wasserman. The team, which won five of its six games at home this season, looks to improve their results away from the Anheuser-Busch Center.
Lueders and Wasserman were named first and second team All-Atlantic 10, respectively. Seniors Angela Lombardo and Michelle Sinclair were named to the Academic All-Conference Team.