At Saturday's Iona Meet of Champions, many experienced runners opened up their seasons with impressive performances. The men captured second place, 45 points behind first-place Iona College and seven points ahead of third place University at Albany. The women finished in third place, only five points behind first-place Iona College.
"I thought they performed well," said Tim Springfield, head coach of the men's team. "We executed the game plan we drew up, and I was pleased."
Dan Lowry '12 led the way for the Bears in the eight-kilometer course. He finished fifth overall, completing the course in 25 minutes, 6 seconds. Matt Duffy '12 claimed sixth place in the race and finished in a time of 25:13.
"I was feeling really good in the race," Lowry said. "Matt Duffy and I ran the whole thing together, and we were kind of feeding off each other. We kept moving up and kept picking people off."
Springfield said though the pack running was well, he wanted to see the team improve in reducing the time spread between runners.
"I think as the season goes on, the spreads going to close even more," Lowry said.
The women were led by Margaret Connelly '14, who completed the six-kilometer course in 22:07, and claimed second place overall.
"We tried to stay controlled the first mile and then accelerate and at least stay even in packs together," said Mitchell Baker, head coach of the women's team. "I thought we were pretty successful at that."
Heidi Caldwell '14 finished second for Bruno and third overall in 22:12, and Ari Garber '12 completed the pack with a ninth-place finish and a time of 22:53.
"Those three probably have trained the most together but actually ran the least amount of race together," Baker said. "We'll have to have them closer together to be at our best."
The Bears' next challenge will come Sept. 30 at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University.
"We just have to keep being consistent, and I think we're in a good place for an early season competition," Springfield said.
