November 12, 2022

The Basics

• The lead: Junior Rachel Pinho narrowly missed All-Region honors in leading the Stevens Institute of Technology women's cross country team to 11th place Saturday at the Metro Region Championship.
• Location: DeSales University Cross Country Course - Center Valley, Pa.
• Short Story: Using a 6:37.8 mile pace, Pinho completed the six-kilometer course in 24:43.2 to lead Stevens' six-runner contingent, finishing 37th out of 170 runners. The top 35 runners earn All-Region recognition. The Bridgewater, New Jersey product finished 8.4 seconds behind the 35th-place runner. Pinho was 47th at the first marker and steadily moved up at each of the next two markers before completing the race. As a team, the Ducks finished 11th out of the 24 competing teams, totaling 328 points. The Ducks improved their finish by four places from last year's regional championship meet. 
• Of note: After winning the MAC Championship meet, Widener also won the Metro Region team title with 61 points, finishing 28 points ahead of Swarthmore. Widener had two of the top-five runners, with Gabriella Nye using a 6:07.03 mile pace to win the individual title.

The Finishes

• Stevens' top-five finishers were spread by 3:02 seconds.
• The Ducks averaged 26:05 to complete the course, which was eight seconds faster than the team that finished directly ahead of them in the standings.
• Junior Fionna Feerick was the Ducks' second finisher, using a 6:52.1 mile pace to finish 59th overall, completing the course in 25:36.5.
• Junior Jacqueline Lulaj was the team's third finisher, placing 70th with a time of 26:04.3. First-year Taylor Enes finished right behind Lulaj, reaching the finish line in 26:10.
• Graduate student Caroline Corr was the final scoring runner, using a 7:26.5 mile pace to complete the course in 27:44.8.
• First-year Christina Alexandrov rounded out the Ducks' contingent of runners, completing the course in 29:01.5.

From the Course - Head Coach John Kolibab

• "We've had an incredibly successful campaign on both sides and that continued today with a strong showing at the Metro Regional Championships. Our women improved on last year's finish, moving from 15th to 11th, and our men's squad followed suit an hour later, moving from 12th to 7th. These sorts of improvements are amazing to see, and I can't wait to see the positive impact this will have on our upcoming indoor track and field season!"
• "As I've said before, being able to improve upon our conference and regional finishes while losing our top two runners from the season before was always the goal. I'm so incredibly proud of our women for being about to accomplish such a feat. While the resurgence of Rachel Pinho's cross country form was paramount to the success we had this season; our women fought hard and grew as a group all year. The future looks very bright."

Up Next

• Continue to log on to StevensDucks.com for offseason news and notes.

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