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NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Bill Steele and Whitney Hora of Wilmington University have been named the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Male and Female Runners of the Week for the week ending Sunday, Oct. 10. Stewart Reich of Goldey-Beacom College was selected Male Rookie of the Week, while Hora also took Female Rookie of the Week honors.

Steele, a sophomore from Conowingo, Md., was the individual champion at the Goldey-Beacom Fall Classic, crossing in 28:46. He led WU to a second place finish as a team. Steele has been chosen Runner of the Week four times this season.

Hora, a freshman from Kingsville, Md., placed first at the Goldey-Beacom Fall Classic, winning by 20 seconds with a 20:09 5k clocking. She led the Wildcats to a second place finsh.

Reich, a freshman from Frederick, Md., finished in fifth place at the Goldey-Beacom Fall Classic, crossing in an 8k time of 29:14. He led GBC to a third place finish as a team.

Honorable Mention

Marty Farrell, USci (Jr., Drexel Hill, PA) - Placed second at the GBC Invite, crossing in 28:51, only five seconds behind winner.

Fred Tuwei, Holy Family (Sr., Nairobi, Kenya) - Won the Larry Simmons Classic with a time of 14:20. 

Danielle Riley, Wilmington (Jr., Hartly, DE) - Was the runner-up at the GBC Invite in 20:29.

Sarah Simonetti, Philadelphia (Jr., Perkasie, PA) - Finished fourth out of 198 entrants at the DeSales Invitational with a 6k time of 22:58.

Julia Miller, Dominican (So., Mt. Vernon, NY) - Placed third at the GBC Invite in a time of 20:29.

CACC Cross Country Notes

Bloomfield - Junior Elson Smajlaj continued his outstanding 2010 campaign Saturday, posting his third-straight top-ten finish at the Goldey Beacom Invitational. Smajlaj finished seventh in the event, after finishing fourth in last week’s meet at Belmont Plateau. For the women, Mercy Puma was the top finisher for Bloomfied, placing 17th in the event.

Goldey-Beacom - Freshman Stewart Reich finished in fifth place at the Goldey-Beacom Fall Classic with a time of 29:14. He has led the Lightning in every race this year. This was his third top-five finish of the season and fourth in the top-10.

Philadelphia - The Philadelphia University men’s cross country team finished 12th at the De Sales University Cross Country Invitational. Sophomore Kip Kirui placed first for the Rams and 14th overall. The Rams return to action Saturday (10/16) at the Blue and Gold Invitational at White Clay Creek Park in Delaware. The Philadelphia women finished fourth in the DeSales Invitational meet. Junior Sarah Simonetti (Perkasie, PA/Pennridge H.S.) was the team’s top runner with a time of 22:58, taking fourth overall. Fellow junior Angelica DiNucci finished at 24:54 for the Rams coming in 22nd overall. The Rams return to action Saturday (10/16) at the Blue and Gold Invitational at White Clay Creek Park in Delaware.

USciences - For the first time in program history, both the men’s and women’s team’s captured the team title at an invitational meet. The women’s team title was their first overall win since claiming the CACC championship in 2005. The men’s win was their first since 2007. On the men’s side, the Devils placed five runners in the top ten to take the team title with Marty Farrell (Drexel Hill, Pa.), Georgiy Polyak (Dingmans Ferry, Pa.) and Pete Grant (Springfield, Pa.) finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively with all three finishing in under 30 minutes. Tuynh “Twain” Nguyen (Morrow, Ga.) ran a season best time of 30:37 to take 8th overall. The Devils 1-5 gap was 2:03

On the women’s side, the Devils first nine finishers all ran their best times of the season so far, led by freshman Abby Kearns (Scranton, Pa.) recording a personal best time of 20:54.  The Devils top four finishers were all under 23:00 for the race with Kristin Waters (Syracuse , N.Y.) 8th overall (22:03) and Allison Dargay (Glen Mills, Pa.) and Kim Brown (Toms River, N.J.) 11th and 12th respectively. The Devils are off next week and return to action on 10/24 for their final tune-up at Belmont Plateau before the conference championships on November 7th.