Trinity's Bak, Emord, and Kane Travel
to Illinois for Cross Country Nationals		 Trinity College

Trinity Teams Fall Just Short

 HARTFORD, Conn., Nov. 14 - Junior co-captains Ryan Bak (Suffield, Conn.) and James Emord (Bridgewater, Mass.) and freshman Christina Kane (Springfield, Mass.) each qualified for the NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships with outstanding performances in the NCAA Division III New England Regional Championships at Westfield State College on Nov. 10. The men’s and women’s national meets will take place at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

Junior tri-captain James Emord

The Bantam men’s squad, which finished its regular season ranked No. 6 in New England and No. 28 in the nation, finished one place shy of qualifying for the National Championships as a team at New Englands. The Trinity men qualified for Nationals as a team last fall, finishing 14th in the national meet in Spokane, Wash.

The Trinity women, which finished its regular season ranked No. 5 in New England, also fell one place short of qualifying for Nationals as a team. The Bantam women finished in fifth place with 169 points, which was only six points behind fourth-place Brandeis.

Bak finished second overall in the men’s race at the new England Championships with a time of 25:02, which was 11 seconds behind the first-place finisher. He has the team-best time this season at 24:52, achieved in a first-place finish in the New England Small College Athletic Conference Championships on Oct. 27. Bak also won the Amherst Invitational and the Bantam Invitational, and finished 11th in the New England Open Championships. He was an All-NESCAC (First Team) and an All-New England selection, as well as the NESCAC Most Outstanding Men’s Cross Country Performer, this season. Also an All-American in track and field, Bak was a second team All-NESCAC runner in 2000.

Emord finished ninth overall in the men’s race at the New England Championships with a time of 25:11. He has a season and career-best time of 25:11, achieved in a third-place finish in the NESCAC Championships. He was an All-NESCAC (First Team) and an All-New England selection this season.

Kane finished 20th overall in the women’s race at the New England Championships with a career-best time of 18:15. She is the first Bantam cross country runner to qualify for the National Championships in her freshman season.

Also at the New England Championships, Trinity sophomore Kristina DePeau (Stafford, Conn.) finished 23rd overall with a career-best time of 18:27, which was two places and nine seconds shy of qualifying for the National Championships. Junior Leeann Rheaume (Pittsfield, Mass.) who was one place shy of qualifying for the National Championships last season, finished in 27th place at 18:30 this season, while sophomore Karen Roy (Ashford, Conn.) posted a career-best time of 18:52 to finish in 40th place. For the men, sophomore Jonathan Drappi (West Boylston, Mass.) posted a career-best time of 26:06 to finish in 34th place.