The Niagara men’s and women’s cross country teams are back in action to compete in the 2016 MAAC Championships held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida on Saturday. The men’s race begins at 8:00 a.m. followed by the women’s race at 9:00 a.m. Both races will air live on ESPN3.
Senior Tyler van Leeuwen has led the men’s Purple Eagles in every race this season. In the most recent race, van Leeuwen finished 28th out of 138 runners at the Canisius Alumni Classic in 26:23.2 (8K). Freshman Ryan Delola and Adian Russell set personal best times at the Canisius Alumni Classic with times of 27:25 and 27:59.3 respectively. van Leeuwen led the Purple Eagles at the 43rd Paul Short Invitational. He ran the race in 26:17 for 150th place out of 401 runners. Matt Whitworth (27:17), Sergio Cruz (27:20) and Ethan Graves (27:27) set personal bests. In the season-opening Little 3 Championships, Niagara ran the 5K event in 16:43.3 to finish ahead of St. Bonaventure (17:10.2) and behind Canisius (15:51.0).
For the women, Caroline Hampton finished atop of the Purple Eagles for the 3rd time this season at the Canisius Alumni Classic with the time of 19:35.8 for 32nd place. Sarah Grubbs and Aly Orfano had set personal best times. Kayla Murphy and Caroline Hampton both finished in the top-10 in the season-opening Little 3 Championships at Delaware Park. Murphy and Hampton finished at the top for the Purple Eagles at the National Catholic Invitational with times of 19:52.6 and 19:48 respectively. Caroline Hampton set her personal-best time of 22:49 at the 43rd annual Paul Short Invitational. Kayla Murphy was second on the team with a 24:01. Aly Orfano (24:17), Sarah Grubbs (24:49) and Megan Helf (24:59) all had personal-best times.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
