PRESQUE ISLE – The University of Maine at Presque Isle women’s cross country team captured the 2009 NAIA Sunrise Conference Championship title this past weekend at Park Family Field.
This is the second consecutive championship for the Owl women, as they finished in first out of five competing conference teams. They were just one point ahead of Paul Smith’s College, as the Owls scored 28 points to Paul Smith’s 29.
The UMPI men were also impressive, tallying 51 points, but finished second behind Paul Smith’s College, who scored 36. Sophomore Justin Fereshetian of Turner won the men’s race in an impressive time of 29:00, qualifying him to compete in the men’s NAIA National Championships to be held Nov. 21 in Vancouver, Wash.
On the women’s side, junior Shelly Hanson of Charleston led her Owl team, finishing third overall on the day in a time of 22:26, which also qualified her to compete in the national meet. Teammate Kati Christoffel of Clifton Park, N.Y. finished fourth in 22:58, while Justine Cyr of Fort Kent and Chandra Wisneski of Amherst, N.H. finished fifth (23:12) and sixth (23:59), respectively. Senior Julie Rugg of South Paris had a great race, finishing 11th in 25:31, while freshman Ally Pizzuti of Caribou came in 17th in 27:39.
For the men, freshman Jason Johnson of Presque Isle ran a solid race, finishing eighth in 31:30, followed closely behind by teammate Chris Rines of Caribou in 31:46, good for ninth. Senior Aaron Schmersal of Winthrop, running in his final race as an Owl, finished 15th in 32:47. Freshman Hugh McLellan of Maitland, Nova Scotia and first-year runner Brian Korhonen of Littleton finished 18th (33:42) and 19th (33:51), respectively. James Cirell of Bingham completed the Owl finishers in 33rd place with a time of 40:38.
Vermont Tech, SUNY-Canton and UM-Fort Kent were the other schools competing. UMPI’s Chris Smith was named Sunrise women’s coach of the year.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
SOPHOMORE Justin Fereshetian of the University of Maine at Presque Isle cross country team came in first place in Saturday’s Sunrise Conferene meet and qualified for the NAIA nationals.
