On Saturday, October 31, Colgate hosted the Patriot League Cross Country Championships at the Harry H. Lang Cross Country course.

Sophmore Elise DeRoo took home first place in the event, her third individual title of the season. Her final time of 22:01.7 was both a personal record, a Colgate school record and a Harry Lang course record. In addition to taking home the individual Patriot League Title, DeRoo was named the Most Outstanding Runner of the Meet and Patriot League Female Runner of the Year. DeRoo is just the third cross-country runner in Colgate history to win the award, and is the first to do so since 2007. When asked about what it was like to have such a powerful runner on the team, Women’s Cross Country Coach Laura Nardelli said, “She is a delightful person to work with, and very, very focused. She is a confident and fierce competitor.”

The rest of the team placed a very respectable fourth place out of the eight Patriot League teams. Bucknell took home the team Patriot League title by placing five runners in the top 25. Army and Navy founded out the top three.

Sophomores Julie Tarallo (12th place overall) and Kelly Cattano (18th overall) rounded out Colgate’s runners in the top-25 at the meet. Allie Bodack (24:39.0) and Jeannie Sauter (25:09.6) placed 36th and 47th overall, respectively, and were the fourth and fifth-best runners on the Colgate squad. In addition to her individual title and Most Outstanding Runner award, DeRoo also earned First Team All-Patriot League honors. Julie Tarallo earned Second Team All-Patriot League honors for her performance throughout the season. The women’s team continued a very successful season, with its fourth top-5 finish in five meets so far. The next meet for the women will also be the NCAA Regional Qualifiers on November 14 in Boston at 11 a.m.

Commenting on preparation for the race, Nardelli said,  “we want to prepare the women for the faster pace of the first mile of the race in particular.”  Nardelli added that the team will, “do more interval work, with a little more track work to help with speed.”

The Colgate men’s squad placed a disappointing seventh place out of eight teams, but had several standout performances. Junior Ed Sheridan finished with the fastest time for the Raiders, and 29th overall, with a time of 27:33.4. Sheridan continued his successful 2009 campaign, finishing with the best time on the men’s team for the fourth time in five meets this season. The one time that he didn’t finish first on the Colgate squad was on September 19, when he finished one second behind Colgate’s top finisher, first-year Chris Johnson. Junior Grant Stauffer was just behind Sheridan in 30th place overall with a time of 27:36.6. First-year Chris Johnson, junior Griffith Cannon and sophomore Thomas Hedges rounded out Colgate’s top 5, finishing in 38th, 39th and 45th places, respectively.

The meet was won by Navy, who successfully defended their Patriot League  championship from last season. The Midshipmen placed an astounding eight runners in the top 16 places to take home the championship with an overall time of 132:42.7. Colgate began the season strong, placing third overall in the first two meets. When the team traveled to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, they placed a respectable 22nd place out of 38 teams. Prior to the championship this weekend, on October 17, the team placed 8th out of 24 teams. The team’s most recent performance at the Patriot League Championship was the first real slip-up that they had all season. Colgate will look to rebound when they travel to Boston to face off against many teams from around the area in the NCAA Regional Championships, also on the 14th.