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#2 Men's Cross Country Wins Metropolitan Championship

10/05/07

Metropolitan Cross Country Championship Results

Producing a one-two-three individual finish, the New York University men's cross country team won the Metropolitan Cross Country Championship on Friday afternoon at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Competing as the only NCAA Division III team in the field, the Violets easily outdistanced second-place Columbia University 27-62, to capture their first-ever Met title as a Division III program.

Violet senior Hany Abdallah led for most of the five miles, posting a winning time of 26:00.2 and passing Marist College's Girma Segni just before the 2,000-meter mark.

"I was pretty confident that I had the strength to keep the lead, but it was the mental part at the end that I was most concerned about," Abdallah said. "I worked very hard over the summer to get stronger. But, running a race under these conditions makes the mental toughness even more important than physical strength."

Running over a hazy, hot and humid Van Cortlandt Park course, with temperatures in the low 80's, times "were about a minute slower than they would normally be," according to NYU head coach Nick McDonough. "But, our guys ran a great race despite the conditions."

Senior Ryan Williams pushed Abdallah down the stretch, finishing just over a second behind his teammate (26:01.7).

Junior Jesse Schneider moved into contention after the 4,000-meter mark and finished strongly in third place with a time of 26:09.6.

"Beating Division I scholarship teams proves that we can run with anyone," Abdallah added. "This will give us great confidence that we can beat anyone else we face on our schedule."

Senior James McCarthy was the Violets' fourth finisher (26:41.3, sixth place), while sophomore Calvin Lee placed 15th (27:17.9) as NYU's fifth scorer.

Overall, 12 teams and 140 runners competed.