Bears and Lady Bears Cross Country Competes at CSI Invitational

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Senior Teresa Mangan (Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph's) and sophomore Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) were the lead runners for the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's and women's cross country teams as they competed in the College of Staten Island Invitational on Sunday morning at Clove Lakes Park.

Mangan finished in fourth place overall clocking in a season-best 21:37 for the 5K course pacing the Lady Bears to an 8th place team finish out of 16 scoring teams.

In his first collegiate race, Maddox covered the 5K course in his home borough in 20:31 to finish in 47th overall and leading the Bears to an 11th place team finish out of 13 teams.

For the women, junior Kelly McNamee (Glendale, NY/Mary Louis) was the second Lady Bear to cross the line, mirroring her time of 24:38 from last week. Junior Melissa Morrice (Middle Village, NY/St. Francis Prep) displayed the most improvement, shaving nearly two minutes from last week to finish in third in 27:09. Junior Dalixy Solis (Bronx, NY/Bayard Rustin) and Lauren Conter (Glendale, NY/Archbishop Molloy) rounded out the scoring five finishing in 28:26 and 28:54, respectively.

Freshman Thomas Rushin (Ocoee, FL/Ocoee) turned in another strong effort, the second Bear to cross the finish line, with a time of 21:12, good for a 56th place finish.  Junior Joe Mendez (Glendale, NY/St. Francis Prep) finished in 23:02 with senior Danny Contant (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) right behind him in 23:11. Staten Island local Kevin Alesi (Staten Island, NY/Tottenville) stopped the clock in 25:57 to complete the top 5.

The Bears and Lady Bears return to action on Sunday, October 7th competing in the York College Invitational in Van Cortlandt Park starting at 10 a.m.