DORCHESTER, Mass. - The Simmons College women's cross country team placed eighth overall and fifth among college teams at the 35th Annual Women's Codfish Bowl at Franklin Park in Dorchester, Mass.
The Sharks saw 11 runners set personal records on the day.
Tufts University turned in a score of 31 points to win the team meet and was led by the individual champion, junior Alice Wasserman (Santa Monica, Calif.), who turned in a time of 19:01 in the five kilometer race. Simmons posted a score of 202.
First year Samantha Jaffe (Fayetteville, N.Y.) led the Sharks with a personal-best time of 20:30 to finish 32nd overall and 23rd among collegians. Senior Kara MacLean (Braintree, Mass.) eclipsed her personal-best time by 15 seconds to place 35th (24th among collegians) with a mark of 20:35. Sophomore Allegra Egizi (Beverly, Mass.) came in 50th (35th) and bested her previous best time by 27 seconds with a mark of 20:53 to give Simmons a trio of harriers to break the 21-minute mark. Junior Sara Harland (Pembroke, Mass.) also registered a personal-record time by one second with a time of 21:40 to place 71st (48th). First year Emma Vagedes-Plavcan (Amherst, Mass.) became the third newcomer to figure in the scoring for the Sharks, placing 82nd (56th) with a time of 22:01.
The most impressive individual performance of the day was arguably put together by junior Emily Fowler (Chula Vista, Calif.), who was running in her first race of the season after competing in her first collegiate season last year. She shattered her personal-record by time five minutes and 10 seconds with a time of 28:55 to finish 159th (112th). Senior Cortney Hanrahan (Southampton, Mass.) also blew by her former best mark with a time of 24:48 to best it by 91 seconds and contribute to a 133rd-place (88th) effort. Senior Monica Khun (Phnom Penh, Cambodia/Lawrence HS (Mass.)) also showed an improvement by over a minute with a personal-record time of 23:47 to clip her previous mark by 68 seconds and place 120th (83rd). Senior Tiff Lo (Braintree, Mass.) made her season debut a good one by placing 105th (73rd) with a personal-best time of 23:02 to shave 21 seconds off her previous mark.
Three other rookie runners posted personal-record times for Simmons. First year Carol Figueiredo (Norwood, Mass.) cut 65 seconds from her season-opening meet time and placed 123rd (85th) with a mark of 23:50. Junior Sarah Colbert (Lynnfield, Mass.) posted a time of 24:37 to best her previous time by 32 seconds and placed 132nd (87th), while first year Michelle Medici (South Portland, Maine) bettered her opening meet mark by 61 seconds with a time of 26:29 and finished 144th (97th).
The Sharks will run again on October 10 when they return to Franklin Park to compete in the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association Championship.