Pallotto paces Seahawks to second-place at TCCC championships
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Salve Regina University freshman Paige Pallotto [Woodbridge, Conn.] outraced the entire field at The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championships on the campus of Western New England College on Saturday. Pallotto ran the 6,000-meter course in 23:31, nearly a half minute ahead of her closest competitor. With her performance, her second first-place finish of the season, Pallotto earned TCCC Runner of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors.
Freshman Mallory Goding [Cumberland, Maine] and sophomore Caroline Norton [Portland, Conn.] joined Pallotto among the top ten finishers, sixth and eighth respectively, to earn all-conference recognition. Junior Marisa Fiore [Lexington, Mass.], freshman Alexis Gallipoli [Branford, Conn.], and sophomore Taylor Rosendale [Grafton, Mass.] were the next three Seahawk finishers, letting no other runners come between them at 12 through 14.
These remarkable individual finishes pushed the Seahawks within one point of the conference championship, behind the eight-time league champions from Roger Williams University.
"When you lose the championship by one point the usual response would be that of frustration," said Seahawk assistant coach Matt Hird. "But not today. Both Roger Williams and Salve Regina ran like champions. All but one of our top seven ran their best race of the season. Paige dominated the field. Marisa, Ali, and Taylor improved by huge amounts while Mal also ran her fastest time of the season. They wanted this race in the worst way and threw everything they had at it, leaving nothing on the course. And they came up one point short. Eight time conference champions don't give up easily, and that was the case today. But our runners have everything to be proud of. They scared the daylights out of Roger Williams and will be a force to be reckoned with in future years as all of the top nine return. And Coach Dave Bender was rewarded by his peers with the coach of the year award. Not a bad day at all."