Men's Cross Country 9/7/2018 10:57:00 AM

XC Opens Season At Fordham Fiasco

Bronx, NY - Manhattan cross country will officially begin the 2018 season at the Fordham Fiasco Saturday, September 8 in Van Cortlandt Park. The women's 5K race will start at 9:30 am, with the men's 8K taking off at 10:00 am.

Highlights:

Lisa Fajardo (Brooklyn, NY / Bishop Kearney) will look to defend her 2017 Fordham Fiasco title. The senior won last year's 5K race by more than 17 seconds (18:24.09), leading the Jaspers to a team victory, as well. Fajardo currently holds the school's VCP 5K course record (17:58.9), which she earned at the 2017 ECAC Cross Country Championships on November 18.
Now graduated, John Dove also claimed victory at last year's Fordham Fiasco. The Manhattan men took four of the top five spots en route to registering 20 points in easily topping second-place Rutgers' total of 36 points.
The Jaspers return 12 male letterwinners to the team this year. Senior Amir Khaghani (Bethesda, MD / Walt Whitman) earned a third-place finish in last year's Fordham Fiasco with a time of 26:20.83. Classmate Nick Matson (Clifton, NY / Shenenehowa) took fifth (26:32.84).
Manhattan returns 11 to the women's team. Last season, Caroline Ferri (Garden City, NY / Garden City) finished third at the Fordham Fiasco (8:58.91), with Erin Spadaccini (Wilmington, DE / Padua Academy) in sixth (19:17.25).
Ten newcomers have been added to the men's cross country team. Freshman Ryan Tierney (St. Peter's / Staten Island, NY) won the 2016 Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Cross Country Championship. Classmate Liam Farrell (Hyde Park, NY / F.D. Roosevelt) was named the Poughkeepsie Journal Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year in 2017, and won the Mid-Hudson Athletic League Championship in cross country as a senior.
The Jasper women add four to their roster for the 2018 season. Freshman Hali Ielfield (Glenfield, NY / South Lewis Central) was twice named a New York State All-Star in cross country and was a member of the 2017 state championship team, coming in fifth overall.
Cross Country Head Coach Kerri Gallagher is a 2011 graduate of Fordham, where she is a member of the school's athletic hall of fame and continues to hold several middle-distance records.