Women's Cross Country Finishes Sixth at GNAC Invitational, Moore Named to All-Conference Team
STANDISH, Maine—Norwich University tallied 66 points to claim the 2014 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Women's Cross Country Championship at Saint Joseph's College on Saturday afternoon.
With all five scorers in the top 23 individually, Norwich managed to edge Emmanuel College by one point en route to claiming the GNAC women's cross country title for the first time in program history.
Sophomore Chapel Gaurnieri (Pepperell, Mass.) paced the Cadets and claimed top individual accolades with a 20:49 performance, five seconds ahead of Saint Joseph's senior Heather Eaton (Lincolnville, Maine).
Monks senior Amber Dostie (Standish, Maine), the winner of the last three GNAC Championship races, finished third with a 21:02 time, Emmanuel senior Martina Benassi (North Haven, Conn.) placed fourth with a 21:07 effort, and University of Saint Joseph sophomore Kaneen Gomez-Hixon (Wethersfield, Conn.) raced to a fifth-place finish with a 21:31 performance.
Simmons College placed third with 75 points, Johnson & Wales University finished fourth with 82 and Saint Joseph's was fifth with 112. Anna Maria College (141 points), University of Saint Joseph (175), Mount Ida College (257), Lasell College (265) and Suffolk University (293) rounded out the field of 10 scoring programs. Rivier University also competed in the event but did not score.
With the individual victory, Guarnieri collected GNAC Runner of the Year honors while Benassi claimed GNAC Rookie of the Year accolades after finishing as the top first-year runner. Emmanuel Head Coach Tony DaRocha was selected, by a vote of his peers, as the GNAC Coach of the Year.
Anna Maria College sophomore Maureen Moore (Newbury, Mass.) posted a season-best 10th place finish and was named to the GNAC All-Conference team. She finished the five-kilometer race with a time of 22:00 and a pace of 7:05. She becomes the first AMCAT runner to record a top-ten finish at the annual league meet.
Sophmore Ashley Eccleston (Plymouth, Mass.) recorded a 17th-place finish with a time of 22:22, while freshman Ashley Bricault (Cumberland, R.I.) rounded out the Anna Maria top-three with a 25th-place finish and a time of 22:37.
Yearly Awards:
Women's Runner of the Year - Chapel Guarnieri, Norwich Women's Rookie of the Year - Martina Benassi, Emmanuel Women's Coach of the Year - Tony DaRocha, Emmanuel
Women's All-Conference
Chapel Guarnieri (So.), Norwich
Heather Eaton (Sr.), Saint Joseph's
Amber Dostie (Sr.), Saint Joseph's
Martina Benassi (Sr.), Emmanuel
Kaneen Gomez-Hixson (So.), Univ. of Saint Joseph
Kara MacLean (Jr.), Simmons
Kristen Caroselli (So.), Johnson & Wales
Haddie Lary (Fr.), Norwich
Kristen Decesare (Sr.), Johnson & Wales
Maureen Moore (So.), Anna Maria
