NIAGARA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Competing in their first event of the fall, the Niagara Purple Eagles men’s and women’s cross country teams both finished in third place at the annual Little 3 Championships. Nora Klinowski finished sixth overall in the women’s 5k, while Ryan DeLola’s 18th-place finish was the men’s team’s top result.
Meet Marks (Women)
- Klinowski led the Purple Eagles by finishing the 5k with a time of 19:34.60, setting a new personal best by nearly 20 seconds.
- Freshmen Annina Marullo (19:52.98), Meggie Hart (20:02.58) and Elle Russell (20:18.55) were Niagara’s 2-3-4 finishers, all placing inside the top 20.
- Junior captain Julia Freemire rounded out the team score for Niagara, contributing a time of 20:48.82.
- Overall, the women had 54 points and an average race time of 20:07.51.
Meet Marks (Men)
- DeLola was the first male across for the Purple Eagles, finishing the course in 16:45.00.
- Sophomores Joe Tricarico (17:05.00) and Spencer Swoboda (18:04.00) were the second and third across for the men’s team. Tricarico set a new personal record in a 5k with his effort.
- Newcomers from the swim team Daniel Leskowicz (18:34.00) and Justin Sagasta (19:18.00) rounded out the team’s five runners on the day.
- The men’s squad ended the day with 65 points, completing the race in an average of 17:57.20.
Coach’s Corner
- Head coach Christine Kloiber: “We’re super pleased with how everyone performed today! We tend to approach each meet with specific execution goals that will lead to our performance goals so everything we get right earlier in the season can pay off later in the season, and ideally, the championship.”
“Our freshmen women did great. They’ve connected with one another so well, and integrated into the program so smoothly, it seems like we’ve been practicing together a lot longer than two weeks at this point. Annina, Meggie, and Elle had really strong showings, and worked great with their upper-classmen pack-leaders. They were composed and ran with Nora and Julia; which resulted in their fastest season-opening times ever.”
“Joe also set a 5k personal best. He and Ryan executed their races well. We also wanted to make a special mention of our two new additions from NU’s swim team; Danny and Justin were super solid today. They had great poise in executing their paces and showed how well that aerobic fitness from swimming translated over. These two are just going to keep getting better as the next couple of months pass.”
Up Next
- Niagara will participate in the Siena College Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 8. The men will start the day at 9:45 a.m., with the women following at 10:30 a.m.
