By Tim Farrell

The Central women’s cross country team battled the weather along with the 10 other teams competing for a victory this past weekend. The Blue Devils finished fifth overall and scored 135 points in their final race in preparation for the NEC championships this upcoming weekend.

Leading the way for the team was junior Katherine Bossardet who finished the three kilometer course in 15th place with a time of 10:46.86. It was a good finish for the women as they were able to defeat two NEC rival teams, Long Island and Wagner, who finished in ninth and 10th respectively. They did, however, fall to Quinnipiac who ended up winning the meet with a score of 32 points.

The Blue Devils had some other notable finishers for the team including Alyssa Cole (10:52.00) who took 20th. Other finishers for CCSU included junior Nicole Coiteux (39th with a time of 11:16.60), senior Kim Savino (46th with a time of 11:25.60), and sophomore Amanda Asaro (47th with a time of 11:25.75).

The women will be heading to Quinnipiac this Saturday at noon to compete for the NEC championships, a race at which they finished fifth last season.

The CCSU men’s cross country team finished second over all with 88 points, trailing only Sacred Heart, while the women’s team finished fifth at last weekend’s pre-Northeast Conference Invitational held at Quinnipiac University.

In the men’s race Sacred Heart finished first, with Monmouth University, behind CCSU, finished third, Yale tied up the fourth place spot followed by Wagner.

The women’s race was won by Quinnipiac, who placed five runners in the top ten, followed by Sacred Heart in second, Monmouth in third, and Yale fourth, just ahead of CCSU with 136 points.

Monmouth senior, Pete Forgach, placed first in the men’s race with a time of 25:52.

Quinnipiac freshman, Rebecca White, placed first in the woman’s race at 17:58.

The CCSU men were lead by outstanding performances by sophomore Sam Alexander, who placed third and freshman Craig Hunt, who placed sixth.

Alexander was able to hold off a runner closing in at the last push of the race.

“Sacred Heart had a man behind me, and I just maintained my spot,” Alexander said

The CCSU women followed teammate Katherine Bossardet, who placed eighth and had an inspiring finish, closing in nearly thirty yards to knock a Monmouth runner back to ninth place.

At around the ten-minute mark in the men’s race, the top three runners ran off the course and the CCSU men were able to pick their pace for the next couple of minutes.

“We actually slowed our pace down. It’s a big decision to take the lead at that point,” said Alexander.

He placed third at 26:05, Craig Hunt finished sixth at 26:21, Dan Watson finished 21st at 27:10, and Kevin Tiernan finished 36th at 27:22.

Bossardet placed eight at 18:50, Alyssa Cole finished 19 at 19:27, Amanda Asaro finished 29th at 19:45, Nicole Coiteux finished 38th at 20:05, and Kim Savino finished 43rd at 20:34.

Women’s Coach Brenda Webb was optimistic about the team’s performance.

“We’re happy with where we’re at. We’re going to continue to get in better and better shape, and move up in the conference,” Webb said.