Ryan, Gallipoli pace Seahawk women's cross country to strong finish
NO. DARTMOUTH, Mass. - Salve Regina University women's cross country team raced to an 11th place finish (out of 39 schools) at the UMass Dartmouth Shriners' Invitational. The Seahawks, four of their top seven are first-year collegiate runners, finished seven places ahead of perennial conference champion Roger Williams University.
The average time of the first five Seahawk women in this year's race was 24 seconds faster than the first five Salve Regina runners from last year. Also, the Seahawks had a one-minute spread from first to fifth which is a well recognized benchmark for team pack running.
Freshman Kayley Ryan [Portland, Conn.] set the pace for the Seahawk pack scoring 39th overall with a finishing time of 19:29 in the five kilometer race. Sophomore Alexis Gallipoli [Branford, Conn.] followed 20 seconds later and scored 54th overall.
First-year runners Bridget Meehan [Nashua, N.H.], Victoria Beardwood [Coventry, R.I.], and Emma Waldschmidt [Verbank, N.Y.] were separated by 10 seconds crossing the finish line. Juniors Caroline Norton [Portland, Conn.] and Taylor Rosendale [Grafton, Mass.] finished out the scoring for the Seahawks who wear a black ribbon on their jerseys to honor the memory of Marisa Fiore's dad, Donald, who passed away last summer after a long battle with Melanoma.