Cross country team looking up this year

By Anthony Medoro
Collegian Reporter
September 20, 2006

La Salle’s cross country team has begun its season in winning fashion this fall.

Beginning with the Haverford Time Trial on Sept. 3 and then competing in the Lock Haven Invitational over the weekend, the team has displayed strong signs of its vast talent and highly competitive attitude.

Early in September, the Explorers swept the top spots in both the men’s and women’s events at Haverford. Overall, the team had six competitors who scored in the top five for each race.

Junior Tom Ranalli placed first in the men’s race with a time of 15:44.90. For the women’s team, senior Karen Proulx took first place with a time of 18:55.18.

“Tom and Karen ran really well,” head coach Charles Torpey said. “It was a great way to start off the season. All the runners put forth a great effort.”

Senior Ben Franczuszki and junior Carman Cavella also received top five finishes for the men, and senior Kate Dobransky and sophomore Mary Clare Parrot did the same for the women’s team.

On Sept. 14, the women’s team received recognition in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association national poll. This poll highlights the top 45 schools in Division I Women’s Cross Country in the entire nation.

“It really is great to get respect nationally,” Torpey said. “We are up there with a lot of the bigger schools in the country. But that also means that now we have to go out and actually perform. It is nice to be listed in the national rankings, but along with that comes the challenge of actually going out there and doing it.”

As they attempt to climb in the rankings, the La Salle women are counting on strong senior leadership this season. The team will depend on seniors Nicole O’Dea, Proulx, Dobransky, Sara Leymeister, Danielle Schopf and Rachel Papin.

Papin was named to the ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-District Team in June, as well as the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team last Wednesday. With the efforts of these leaders, the team has high expectations for an outstanding season.

“Rachel is a great student and tremendous leader who leads by her example on and off the field. All our women are excellent students and [are] highly disciplined,” said Torpey.

The Explorers really demonstrated the strength of their runners once again over the weekend when they were invited to compete in the Lock Haven Invitational. The team looked sharp on both the men’s and women’s sides and had five competitors score in the top 20 in each.

The men also performed well as a team. Junior Andrew Vernon placed 17th out of 111 in the men’s 10k, and in the end, the team finished fourth behind Penn, Penn State and Bucknell.

The Explorer women really excelled with four competitors finishing better than 20th. Papin placed second out of 161, junior Christa Plummer finished eighth, junior Carol Lipovsky placed 12th and Schopf would finish in 13th.

These rankings were good enough for the Explorer women to take first place in the meet. This included beating Penn State University, which finished second.

“It was good to be able to see us compete against such strong programs like Penn State, Bucknell and Penn,” Coach Torpey said. “I was also impressed with how well the freshmen ran over the weekend.”

With such a promising start this fall, the Explorers look forward to their next meet, which is the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh on Sept. 29.

medoroa1@lasalle.edu