The Fairfield University Men’s and Women’s cross country teams had their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships on Saturday, Oct. 29. The event was hosted by Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y.

The women’s team would conclude their season as they placed eighth out of eleven schools at the event. The team was led by Courtney Kitchen ‘23 and Danielle Grosso ‘23 who finished in the top thirty-five. Kitchen finished first for the Stags for the fourth time in the last five meets. She crossed the line with a time of 22:47.8 which placed her 29th out of 123 runners. Grosso followed soon after finishing at 22:55.4 which was good enough for 33rd place. 

Catherine Lanahan ‘24 finished third for the Stags and 48th overall with a time of 24:00.2; trailing less than a minute behind the Hillsborough, N.J. native was Emily DallaRiva ‘24 who came in 54th with a time of 24:41.8. Finally, rounding out the top five finishers for Fairfield was Anna Weissenberg ‘23 who finished in 25:02.8 in 57th, according to the event’s official scoring sheet

Quinnipiac University would go on to win the fall MAAC championship for the second time in program history. Siena’s Olivia Lomascolo finished first out of the field by 10 seconds with a time of 21:13.6. Coming in second place by a similar margin was Quinnipiac’s Emily Young who finished at 21:21.2.

The men’s team would not fare any better than the women’s team, also finishing in eighth out of the 11-team-field at Siena College on Saturday. 

The top finisher for Fairfield was Jacob Bornstein ‘25, who finished 45th of the 142 man field with a time of 26:31.1. Coming in behind him in 46th was Alex Petersen ‘26, who was twenty-five seconds behind. Coming in third for the Stags and 53rd overall with a time of 27:35.7 was Thomas Vanderslice ‘23. One second and one place later was Pacifico Flores ‘23. The fifth finisher for Fairfield was Ryan Lindley ‘26 who was two places and eight seconds behind Flores.

Iona University dominated by winning their 32nd straight MAAC men’s cross country championship, extending their National Collegiate Athletic Association record. The Gaels held eight of the top 11 runners and seven of the top eight. Finishing first was Joshua DeSouza who finished at 23:46.6. Iona had a combined finish of 17 points from their top five rushers, the second-place team had 61, according to the official scoresheet of the event

Even though the fall season is in the books, both teams will head into the offseason and begin to prepare for their spring campaign. Check www.fairfieldstags.com for any updates.

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