2009 Cross Country Season Recap
- Men Finish 1st and Women Finish 6th in Skyline -
Farmingdale, N.Y. - The Farmingdale state men's
and women's cross country teams finished the season in first and
sixth place, respectively, in the Skyline Conference this season.
The men's team, who captured their first-ever Conference Championship, finished with four runners in the top 10 and would take the title by finishing a total of four minutes faster than the second place squad, Maritime College. The team was led by sophomores Sean Tiernan (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Sean Daly (Lindenhurst, N.Y.), who were the top two finishers for the Rams in every meet this season and finished in 2nd and 3rd place at the Championship meet.
Junior Tim Flynn (Smithtown, N.Y.) placed 4th at the Championship, while sophomore Russell Darress (Lynbrook, N.Y.) was the fourth Ram to finish in the Top-10 with a 10th place finish. Tiernan, Daly and Flynn were all named First Team All-Conference for their respective finishes in the race, while Darress was named Second Team All-Skyline.
Farmingdale competed at the 2009 Atlantic Regionals for the first time in program history. The Rams finished in 25th place out of the 38 teams competing. Daly led the team with a time of 27:34.4 and a 102nd place finish individually, while Tiernan finished in 115th place with a time of 27:45.0. Farmingdale State was the top Skyline Conference school at the meet.
The women's team finished in 6th place out of 9 scoring teams at the Skyline Championship. Freshman Melissa Bonilla (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) finished in 7th place individually, earning First Team All-Skyline Conference Honors. Bonilla joined the Farmingdale Cross Country All-Time Top 25 List this year for her finish at the St. Joseph's College Invitational on the Sunken Meadow Course. She finished in 23:03, which has her in 16th place All-Time.
Senior team-captain Nicole Zarek (Massapequa, N.Y.) ran her final season of cross country at Farmingdale State. She set a personal best time (26:50) in the last race of her career at the Skyline Championship.
Coach Minkoff was named Skyline Conference Coach of the Year for men's cross country.
The Rams look for continued success in 2010, as the men's team has seven sophomores and the women's team will be returning seven of this years eight runners.
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