Women’s Cross Country Team is Athletic Dynasty
The CIA women’s cross country team is the Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference champion for the third consecutive year. (Photo credit: HVWAC/Anthony Macapugay)CIA junior Jackie DeGrandpre won the individual title and was the first of three runners from the CIA among the top five finishers, leading the Steels to the Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference (HVWAC) cross country championship on Sunday, October 21, 2012. The victory marks the third consecutive conference crown for the CIA women’s cross country team.
DeGrandpre (Merrimack, NH) has now won the conference championship race each of her three years at the CIA. This year, she completed 5k course at Bard College in Annandale, NY in 20:44, 19 seconds ahead of her closest challenger. She was followed by senior Brittany Ronan (Bridgewater, CT) in third place and sophomore Shannon Haggerty (Upper Dublin, PA) in fifth place for the Steels. All five CIA runners finished in the top 23 as the Steels handily beat runner-up Pratt Institute in the team standings.
On the men’s side, the CIA had its best-ever finish in the Hudson Valley Men’s Athletic Conference (HVMAC). The Steels took second place in the 8k championship race at Bard, with senior James Avenoso (Hershey, PA) finishing third overall and junior Dylan Rutherford (West Cape May, NJ) and sophomore Michael Stafford (Baldwinsville, NY) also placing in the top 10, at 9th and 10th place respectively. The Steels had six of the first 18 finishers and placed just behind Yeshiva University in the team standings.
The success of both the women’s and men’s teams in 2012 gave CIA head coach Lowell Fisher a sweep of Coach of the Year honors. This is the fourth straight year that Fisher has earned the top coach award in the HVWAC, and it’s his first award in the HVMAC.