By Olivia Custodi, Contributor
Canisius’s women’s cross country took home fifth overall, while men’s placed fourth at the 2023 MAAC Championships in Montgomery, N.Y. Graduate students Olivia Moran and Tom Appenheimer both received All-MAAC Accolades.
Olivia Moran had set high hopes for this meet. “I went in with the goal of winning. … I knew that it was gonna be hard either way, but my goal was to win. I came up a little short, but overall, I've had big improvements, so I can't really be upset with that,” said Moran, whose hopes propelled her to her second place finish with a time of 20:56.8 in the women’s 6k race.
Following behind Moran was junior Kayla Schmidt taking home 17th with a time of 22:06.9, and graduate student Marissa Silba placed 33rd with a time of 23:10.8. The final scoring runners were senior Jules Jones, taking 38th (23:20.7), and sophomore Jacqueline Appenheimer in 40th (23:32.0).
Canisius women placed fifth with a total of 125 points, while Quinnipiac took home first with 31 points.
On the men’s side, Tom Appenheimer took home 10th with a time of 25:09.6 in the men’s 8k race and received his fourth All-MAAC Accolade in a row. “It’s pretty awesome. I’m happy about it. Obviously, I’ve worked very hard these past five years, and it’s good to see that it’s paid off,” said Appenheimer on receiving his award.
Sophomore Kyle Urban took home 18th with a time of 25:44.2, coming in behind Appenheimer. Senior Max Chew took home 27th (26:17.9), followed behind by senior Ronan McDonald in 28th (26:21.7). The last scoring runner on the Canisius men’s team was sophomore Brody Jones in 31st (26:28.0).
The men had a total of 102 points placing them in fourth. Iona came in first with 19 points and seven runners finishing in the top 10.
Up next for the Griffs is the 2023 NCAA Northeast Regionals on Nov. 10 at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y.