Northrop Leads the Lasers Pack against Nationally Ranked Competition

Northrop Leads the Lasers Pack against Nationally Ranked Competition
Posted: Sep 19, 2011

North Dartmouth, MA—First year runner Kyle Northrop (Bellingham, MA) finished the UMass Dartmouth Shriners Men's Cross Country Invitational 8K race in 28:52.69 to lead the pack for Lasell College on Saturday. 

 

The Shriners Invitational proved to be a strong pool of cross divisional competition featuring two NCAA Division III institutions and two Division II institutions that are ranked nationally as of the latest YSTFCCCA Men's Cross Country Coaches Poll.  MIT, ranked 11th nationally and 2nd in the DIII New England Region, claimed the top team award at the meet  with 31 points and an average time of 25:02.54.  Brandeis University, ranked 33rd nationally in DIII and 7th in the region, took second place while Division II Bentley College, ranked 4th in the East Region, took third place as well as the top individual performance by Rob Dextradeur who finished the race in 24:35.00.  UMass Lowell, ranked 1st in the East Region of Division II, came in 6th place as a team.

 

Behind Northrop, who finished 165th overall in the race, was Lasell's senior runner Raymon Donis (Rayham, MA) with a concluding time of 29:58.45 in the invitational and 198th place individually. Donis' time was a new personal best for the senior athlete, taking over a minute off his previous best run (31:04).

 

Freshman Conor Devlin (Wellesley, MA) and senior Grant Vantine (Fitchburg, MA) came in 3rd and 4th for the Lasers individually, with respective times of 31:19.29 and 31:40.89.  Vantine's run was also a personal record for the senior, taking 56 seconds off his prior career best.

 

Jean Leger (Waltham, MA), Isaac Montoya (El Paso, TX), and Michael Isherwood (Warwick, RI) rounded out the Laser crew at UMass.  Leger finished in 32:46.76, Montoya concluded the race in 33:02.79, and Isherwood ended at 32:36.17.

 

Lasell finished 32nd overall as a team at the meet with an average finishing time of 30:55.62.  Lasell also faced three Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) rivals in the invitational, including preseason favorite Johnson & Wales who earned 15th place as a team in the meet.

 

Lasell's next competition will be at Elms College for the Blazers Invitational next Saturday, September 24th.