Jutras leads Seahawks to fourth at Tri-State Invitational
LINCOLN, R.I. – Freshman Brett Jutras (East Bridgewater, Mass.) assumed a leading role for Salve Regina, pacing the Seahawks to a fourth-place finish in the Tri-State Invitational at the Community College of Rhode Island on Saturday.
Jutras, who has been among the varsity regulars for the entire season, moved into the No. 1 spot for the first time this fall. He ran among the top 10 in the field of 76 for much of the race and finished 12th overall at 29:49.24. Jutras was one of only 13 men in the field to break 30 minutes amid challenging course conditions.
Construction on the CCRI campus forced a revision to the 8,000-meter course that routed the men up a 400-meter hill three times during the race. (The traditional 8K course at CCRI climbs the hill twice.) And rain on Friday and Saturday left the trails wet and muddy, slowing times throughout the field.
Junior Andrew Sardelli (Hope Valley, R.I.) ran in the No. 2 spot, with sophomore Dan Donnelly (Portsmouth, R.I.) and junior David Napierkowski (Cheshire, Conn.) not far behind. Senior Jay Brennan (North Haven, Conn.) rounded out the scoring five. Freshmen Riley Rancourt (Warren, R.I.) and Brendan Kelly (Lynbrook, N.Y.) ran at No. 6 and No. 7 for the Seahawks.
"Brett ran an outstanding race today. He was steady, especially on the hills. Each week, he gets better and better," said head coach Rob McGuinness. "Andrew, Dan and Dave delivered exactly what we needed in the middle of the lineup, and Jay stepped in to a key scoring role when we needed him most."
Worcester State University placed three scorers in the top 10 and all five inside the top 15 to win the team title with 37 points. Eastern Connecticut State University was second with a score of 71, four points ahead of Johnson & Wales. Salve Regina placed fourth of eight teams with 94 points.
Johnson & Wales senior Adam Sachs won the individual title with a time of 27:57.18, 61 seconds ahead of the next-closest competitor.
Salve Regina performances included:
12. Brett Jutras (East Bridgewater, Mass.) – 29:49.24
17. Andrew Sardelli (Hope Valley, R.I.) – 30:30.07
20. Dan Donnelly (Portsmouth, R.I.) – 30:37.64
21. David Napierkowski (Cheshire, Conn.) – 30:41.94
24. Jay Brennan (North Haven, Conn.) – 31:01.65
28. Riley Rancourt (Warren, R.I.) – 31:22.09
37. Brendan Kelly (Lynbrook, N.Y.) – 31:54.26
39. Kevin Onofreo (Middlefield, Conn.) – 32:06.63
42. Chandler Da Cruz (Middletown, R.I.) – 32:47.11
45. Neil Sheehan (Methuen, Mass.) – 33:03.97
48. John Lutz (Ringwood, N.J.) – 33:36.96
51. Anthony Tandy (Hopedale, Mass.) – 33:52.55
The Seahawks return to action on October 15 at the Connecticut College Invitational.
Results:
http://coolrunning.com/results/16/ri/Oct1_TriSta_set2.shtml
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Courtesy of Rob McGuinness
