KEENE, N.H. – Led once again by senior JJ Pedersen (Milford, Conn.), the Regis College men's cross country team began a stretch of three straight weeks of competition by participating Saturday in the Keene State Invitational, held at the Keene State College Cross Country Course.
Pedersen finished in 20th place out of 193 runners as he completed the five-mile course in 27:01.2, over 40 seconds faster than the time he posted two weeks ago at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational. Christian Hendricks (Edgewater, Md.) also posted a quicker time Saturday than he did over the same distance on Sept. 21, finishing in 29:34.2, almost 100 seconds faster, to end up in 102nd place.
AJ Corso (Broad Brook, Conn.) was close behind Hendricks in 107th place with a time of 29:54.5, an improvement of 24.4 seconds from two weeks ago. Gustavo Novelle-Ruddy (Boston, Mass.) was the next Pride runner to cross the finish line, ending up in 117th place in 30:05.1, just ahead of Nicholas Sahagian (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) in 122nd place with a time of 30:13.6.
Noah Ryan (Stockton, Calif.) finished in 132nd place with a time of 30:50.2, almost 108 full seconds quicker than his mark in the previous event, and Michael Carroll (Lynn, Mass.) finished in 144th place in 31:27.4, cutting over two minutes off his time from the UMass Dartmouth Invitational.
As a team, the Pride finished in 14th place with 359 points. Williams College easily won the team title, and Matyas Csiki-Fejer of Suffolk crossed the finish line first in 25:57.3 for the individual title.
Regis will head to Standish, Maine, for the Runnin' Monks Invitational next Saturday, Oct. 12, hosted by Saint Joseph's College over the same course where the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championships will take place Nov. 2.