Senior runner Marisa Ryan quickly erased any doubt that last year might be a fluke.
In the first meet of the year, the 2005-06 America East Women’s Scholar Athlete of the year finished first at the Boston University Invitational at Franklin Park Friday. Ryan finished with an overall time of 17:45 in the women’s 5K race, 10 seconds ahead of second-place Smita Gupta of Brown University.
The women’s team, however, would fall just short against Brown that day, dropping a 28-27 decision. However, the Terriers easily handled the University of Rhode Island, 47-15, and Northeastern University, 48-15.
Picked as unanimous preseason favorites, the Terriers team did not disappoint. The women’s squad returns another top-10 conference runner, senior Abbey Sadowski, who finished fourth at the America East Tournament last year. Friday, Sadowski took ninth at the BU Invitational with a time of 18:54.
Other strong finishers include senior Jennifer Malenvosky who finished third with a time of 18:14. Other top 15 finishers for the Terriers included graduate student Claire Robson in fifth place with a time of 18:48, senior Anne Wighton in 10th place with a time of 18:59, freshman Sara Mosser in 13th place at 19:17 and freshman Erin Lagasse in 14th place with a time of 19:18.
The men’s cross country team, meanwhile, came in second for the day, defeating the Huskies by a score of 18-38. However, they fell to the Bears by a convincing score of 44-15.
The highlight for the men’s 8K race came when senior Nick Goodman finished sixth with a time of 26:31. Junior David Proctor finished seventh place at 26:40. Freshman Eric Ashe finished at 26:54, and senior captain Dan Siezckiewicz finished 11th at 26:59 for the Terriers.
“They had two of their top guys missing, so we were ready to put up a better showing,” said Siezckiewicz of Brown, “but three of our tops guys were also hurt, so it was more about getting our first competition of the year finished with, and taking it from there. The guys who were hurt practiced yesterday and looked strong.
“It was a minute slower than I ran last year,” explained Siezckiewicz, who attributes the slow start to a different off-season approach geared toward finishing higher in the America East Tournament.
“Last year we trained really hard for the summer and had a burnout at the end of the year,” he continued. “This year our workouts were a little lighter in the summer, so hopefully we will be strong at the end of the year.”
The men’s squad finished fourth in last year’s America East final meet and also ranked fourth in the 2006 preseason poll.
“I think they simply took the results of last year and didn’t account for the changes.” Siezckiewicz said. “For the regional poll we were actually ranked above No. 1 UNH and Maine as well. We have high hopes this year to not only win the American East, but to have a strong showing in regionals as well.”