Men's CC History | Women's CC History
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Both Ursinus College cross country teams have their sights set on much-improved placements as the Centennial Conference Championships take center stage on Sunday at Gettysburg.
The men's 8,000-meter championship is slated for 11 a.m. before the women's 6,000-meter race gets underway at noon. A combined women's 6K and men's 8K open race will also be held at 12:45 p.m. The primarily flat and fast course is held entirely on campus at The Battlefield.
Ten schools will compete for the women's title while nine teams will vie for the men's crown. Each team may run up to 12 competitors in each championship race. Last year's conference championship meet, hosted by Haverford College, featured 317 combined entrants.
Neither Ursinus program has ever finished higher than sixth at the CC Championships - the men have not cracked the top seven since 1998, while the women last did so in 2008. But with balance up and down their lineups, and some star power at the top, the Bears hope to change that as they take to the Gettysburg course for the second time in as many meets.
For the men, sophomore James McDaid and senior Joseph Iuliucci have been the standard bearers all season, finishing 1-2 for the Bears at all four races this fall. McDaid counts three top-10 individual performances among those four, including an individual title at the Bryn Mawr Invitational and a seventh-place effort at the Paul Short Run, where his time of 26:16 was the best by an Ursinus runner since at least 2000.
Iuliucci placed 25th at last year's CC championship, and McDaid (who was 48th) has an excellent to become the first All-Centennial selection in program history, especially with just three of the first seven finishers from last season's conference meet back. The top-14 finishers in each championship race receive All-Centennial Conference recognition. The top-seven are named First Team All-CC while the eighth through 14th-place finishers garner second-team accolades. The championship race winners are named the Centennial Conference Runners of the Year while the top freshman finishers capture CC Rookie of the Year honors.
A pair of newcomers in freshmen Dylan Geissinger-Tuttle and Matt Roeder have vaulted into the top half of the lineup, crossing the line in 3-4 for the squad in every meet this season. Sophomores Logan Mazullo (38th at last year's meet), John Haase (44th), and Craig Lauer (47th); and juniors Andrew Voyack (45th) and Jonny Cope (61st) all competed at the 2016 championship, while sophomores John Delia and Daniel Powell and rookie Kyle Berardi have all been among Ursinus' top seven at various points.
On the women's side, junior Riley Engel figures to be first across the line for a Bears team she has headed in all three of the meets in which she has competed this fall. Engel posted a 31-second personal record at the Paul Short Invitational (23:32), where she placed 31st in a huge field; she was 47th at the CC Championship a year ago and 45th as a freshman.
Senior Lily Talerman will bring fond memories of last year's championship to this one. Last year, she turned in a PR of more than 75 seconds to finish in 50th place. Talerman has run second behind Engel at three meets.
Ursinus is counting on its depth and balance to shine behind Engel. Juniors Gabrielle Manto and Audrey Simpson, sophomores Ellie Stanley and Alyson Manley, and freshmen Bianca Joseph and Meredith Steele have shuffled among the third through seventh positions throughout the fall.
Johns Hopkins, ranked No. 1 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III poll, enters the meet as the nine-time defending conference champion. No. 16 Dickinson and No. 24 Haverford will try to challenge the powerhouse Blue Jays. Dickinson leads all CC schools in women's cross country titles with 10.
Haverford's No. 3 men's program is seeking its fourth straight CC title, and the Fords have captured the crown in 21 of the 24 all-time championship meets. Johns Hopkins is ranked No. 14 nationally.
Individually, Felicia Koerner of Johns Hopkins returns as the defending conference champion. Haverford's Henry Woods is the top returning individual on the men's side after collecting runner-up status last season.