Lady Spartans Finish 3rd with Bateman's Record Breaking Run, Spartans 4th at Highlander Invitational
Freshman Keeley Bateman broke the STAC 5k school record with a time of 19:09 finishing in 2nd place in the Highlander Invitational at Branch Brook Park on Sunday. For the men's team, freshman Mike Galonski came within 7 seconds of the 8K school record finishing in 4th with a time of 26:05.
While Bateman set the pace, junior teammate Sarah Callagy kept her in sight finishing in a personal best 19:22 in 4th place. Callagy had set the previous school record of 19:43 on September 18th at the C.W. Post Invitational. Chelsea Klinger was the next Lady Spartan to cross the line in 18th place with a time of 20:38. Classmate Lauren Karpoivh set a new personal record of 22:16 which is more than 1:30 faster than her previous races. Lisa Brevogel rounded out the scorers for the Spartans coming in right behind Karpoich with a time of 22:36. The Lady Spartans finished in 3rd place out of 15 teams.
Galonski ran a strong race dropping one minute from his former personal best. Graduate students Vinny Modafferi and Einar Brissing both scored in the top 20 with times of 27:26 and 27:45 respectively. Five of the Spartans remaining eight runners set personal records. Freshmen Matt Buell (28:06), Mike Kraus (29:12), Kyle Curran (30:06), Jon Laszlo (30:27) and Chris McKenna (31:37) dropped more than 9 minutes collectively from their previous bests. The Spartans earned a 4th place finish for the day in a field of 15 teams.
The STAC cross country team will return to action on Saturday at the UAlbany Invitational.
