Bears & Lady Bears Cross Country Concludes Season at Hudson Valley Championships

ANNADALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Senior Teresa Mangan (Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph's) and freshman Thomas Rushin (Ocoee, FL/Ocoee) took medalist honors to pace the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's and women's cross country teams in their 2012 finale at the Hudson Valley Athletic Conference Championships held at Bard College on Sunday afternoon.

Despite battling a leg injury, Mangan finished improved upon her fifth place finish last year to grab fourth overall with a time of 21:52.

Rushin shattered his previous 8k best time by three minutes clocking in at 33:14 to capture 20th place.

Junior Kelly McNamee (Glendale, NY/Mary Louis) just missed out on a medal finishing in 24:55 in 21st place followed one second behind by fellow junior Melissa Morrice (Middle Village, NY/St. Francis Prep) who lowered her personal best by over two minutes.

Senior Hannah Darnell (Nashville, TN/Siegel) and sophomore Lauren Conter (Glendale, NY/Archbishop Molloy) paced each other to a 30:00 minute finish, to round out the team scoring as the Lady Bears finished in 6th place out of eight scoring teams.

For the men, senior Danny Contant (Staten Island, NY/Xaverian) finished in 37:40 edging out junior Joe Mendez (Glendale, NY/St. Francis Prep) who finished two seconds later, both setting season-best times to take 29th and 30th place overall, respectively.

Junior Chris Vargas (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth) also set a personal best, stopping the clock in 38:48, good for 38th place. Junior John Moore (Glendale, NY/Archbishop Molloy) and senior Ismael Dabo (Bloomfield, NJ/St. John's Prep) battled to the finish line finishing in 44:18 to round out the scoring for the Bears who took 5th place as a team.

The Culinary Institute of America captured the women's team championship while Yeshiva University took home the men's championship, both schools winning their third consecutive title.