STANDISH, Maine - Senior Kara MacLean (Braintree, Mass.) finished third to pace the Simmons College women's cross country team to a second-place finish in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship meet hosted by Saint Joseph's College today in Standish, Maine.
The Sharks scored 64 points to finish just 15 points shy of champion Emmanuel College. Simmons, which had four runners finish among the top 17, earns its highest finish in school history at the event. Kaneen Gomez-Hixson, of University of Saint Joseph (Conn.), won the individual crown and was the only competitor to break the 20-minute mark with a time of 19:59 for a 6:26-minute mile pace.
MacLean clocked in at 20:27 to lead the Sharks. First year Samantha Jaffe (Fayetteville, N.Y.) earned All-Conference honors along with MacLean, by virtue of finishing among the top 10. Her time of 20:39 placed her sixth among the field. Sophomore Allegra Egizi (Beverly, Mass.) just missed All-Conference status, finishing a step behind the 10-place runner with a time of 20:57. Junior Sara Harland (Pembroke, Mass.) turned in a 17th-place effort on the time of 21:29, while junior Madison Rivard (Sharon, Mass.) registered the best race of her career with a mark of 22:15 to better her previous best by six seconds and place her 29th overall. Senior Tiff Lo (Braintree, Mass.) was just 11 seconds behind with a personal-record time of her own, finishing two ticks faster than her best at 22:26 to place 30th.
Senior Alicia Morales (Uxbridge, Mass.) shaved 28 seconds off her personal-record time with a mark of 22:52 to place 41st. Senior Marilyn Baremore (East Lyme, Conn.) became the fourth Simmons runner to break her personal-best with a time of 25:08 to eclipse her previous best by five seconds and finish 72nd. Senior Amanda Cardonne (Chelmsford, Mass.) clocked in at 28:21 to post a season-best time and finish 102nd.
Simmons will be in action again on Saturday, November 14 when it competes at the NCAA Regional Championship hosted by Connecticut College at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, Conn at 11:00 a.m.