This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in October 2019.
Fordham’s cross country teams wrapped up the regular season on Friday, Oct. 19 at the Princeton Invitational at the West Windsor Fields in Princeton, N.J. The women’s team finished tenth out of 20 teams while the men’s squad finished fifth place out of 24 participants.
Starting on the women’s side, the top finisher for the Rams was freshman Alexandra Thomas, who came in 21st with a time of 22:04.8. Fordham’s other top-30 finish came from senior Sydney Snow, who finished the 3.83-mile individual event in 22:19.7. The next finisher for Brian Horowitz’s team was freshman Taylor Mascetta. Her time of 23:02.7 was good for 72nd in the event.
There were several other competitors for the women’s team in this event. They included senior Katarzyna Krzyzanowski (86th – 23:12.4), sophomore Bridget Alex (97th – 23:16.2), freshman Sarah Rubenheimer (146th – 24:04.3), freshman Nicoleta Papavasilakas (185th – 25:32.1) and senior Germaine Harbaugh (186th – 25:38.0). All told, the women’s team finished just one point behind University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) for ninth place, and the Rams had a lower average time than the Retrievers.
Things were even better on the men’s side.
There, the Rams finished fifth out of 24 competitors and found consistency up and down the lineup. Senior Ryan Kutch was the top Fordham finisher once again with his fifth-place time of 23:49.0. For his efforts, Kutch was named the Atlantic 10’s performer of the week in Men’s Cross Country. Senior Nicholas Raefski — fresh off finishing first at the Metropolitan Championship on Oct. 11 — finished in 24th with a time of 24:39.2. Sophomore Brandon Hall was right behind him with a 35th-place time of 24:52.3. Two freshmen — John McGovern and Colin Flood — both made the top 60 and completed their 8K in just over 25 minutes.
Outside of these finishes, other competitors for the Rams included junior Christopher Strzelinski (69th – 25:15.0), freshman Jack Craven (98th – 25:33.3), freshman Ryan Fahey (122nd – 25:48.3), freshman Nicholas Lundberg (126th – 25:49.4) and senior Patrick Donohue (139th – 25:57.0).
This was the final regular-season event of 2019 for the Fordham cross country team. Now, it has bigger fish to fry. The Rams will take part in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament on Saturday, Nov. 2 starting at 10 a.m. Kutch won the individual event last year, and will look to do so again in his final A-10 Tournament. The Rams will be ready.