Seahawks clipped at Battle of the North Shore

WENHAM, Mass. – Just one point separated the teams in the Battle of the North Shore at Gordon College on Wednesday afternoon, but the Salve Regina women's cross country team found itself on the losing end of each of the scoring scenarios.

The Battle of the North Shore, traditionally a season-opening dual meet between Gordon College and Endicott College, has expanded in recent years to include the team from Aquidneck Island. The meet is scored as head-to-head matchups between the three teams, and in the invitational format.

Endicott prevailed in the invitational scoring with a team score of 42, with Gordon and Salve Regina tied at 43. Ties in team scoring are broken by comparing the order of finish of each of the five scoring members of the tied teams. That comparison gave the Scots a 3-2 edge over the Seahawks. The dual meet scores held a similar result for Salve Regina, with a 27-28 loss to Endicott and a 29-30 loss to Gordon.

Senior captain Cate Norton (Sandy Hook, Conn.) set the pace for Salve Regina, finishing fourth overall in the 5,000-meter race. Sophomore Heather McKee (Churchton, Md.), freshmen Bre Shipman (New Caanan, Conn.) and Avery Braccia (Bristol, Conn.), and junior Izabella Kuczorski (Simsbury, Conn.) completed the scoring for the Seahawks.

The meet marked the first cross country meet for Salve Regina since November 16, 2019, and the first collegiate meet for many of the women on the team. (Salve Regina did not compete in the fall of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) Seven of the 24 Seahawks on the roster had previously appeared in a collegiate cross country race.

Salve Regina finishers included:

4. Cate Norton – 20:50.2
6. Heather McKee – 20:58.8
8. Bre Shipman – 21:01.8
12. Avery Braccia – 21:39.8
13. Izabella Kuczorski – 21:44.4
16. Lindsey Sirois – 22:04.0
17. Olivia Forbes – 22:16.3
18. Alyvia Page – 22:20.7
19. Delaney Marek – 22:27.3
20. Kaelyn Fidrocki – 22:30.3
21. Paige McDade – 22:33.8
22. Sarah Hauptman – 22:43.1
25. Jenna French – 23:19.3
26. Emma Cote – 23:26.0
28. Bridget Esposito – 23:44.0
29. Nicole Nenninger – 23:51.8
32. Taryn Terracino – 24:22.8
34. Mia Pastorok – 24:28.3
35. Maya Baldauf – 24:33.5
37. Juliana Petronio – 26:04.8

There were 43 runners in the field.

The Seahawks return to action on Saturday, September 11 at the Endicott Invitational.