Wilmington Makes it Two in a Row as Wildcats Claim 2019 CACC Men's Cross Country Championship
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (October 27, 2019) -- Five finishers in the top 14 of the final results propelled Wilmington University to its second-consecutive conference championship, as the Wildcats finished with a first-place score of 39 points on Sunday at the 2019 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Men's Cross Country Championship at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia. The Wildcats finished 22 points ahead runner-up Bloomfield College (61 pts), as the Bears had three runners among the top 11 finishers.
Garret Checchi and Michael Dowd finished in third and fourth place, respectively, to pace WilmU to victory. Checchi finished the 8k course in 28:04, while Dowd was a second back crossing the finish line. Brandon Cruz was the other Wildcat to finish among the top 10, as he placed seventh in a time of 28:20. Will Rehrig and James Kennedy finished back-to-back in 13th (28:44) and 14th place (28:46).
Top-15 finishers in the field earned All-CACC status. Chestnut Hill College's Ziggy Fisher added to his amazing senior campaign, as he won the individual title in a time of 27:42.2. By finishing first he was also named the 2019 CACC Men's Runner of the Year. Goldey-Beacom College's Zach Landvik-Larsen was named the CACC Rookie of the Year by being the highest freshman finisher in the event (8th, 28:23).
Bloomfield's top-three finishers included Giovanni Aracena (5th, 28:09), Nicholas Rivera (10th, 28:39) and Marc Lugo (11th, 28:40). Jefferson rounded out the top-three teams in the standings in third with 77 points.
ABOUT THE CACC
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 14 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Bloomfield College, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Concordia (N.Y.) College, Dominican (N.Y.) College, Felician University, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), Nyack College, Post University of Waterbury, University of the Sciences, and Wilmington University.