Klein stars for XC team

The NAC Championships for the Spartan cross country teams were held in Poultney Vt. on Oct.31 at Green Mountain College. The Spartans had strong performances from a number of different runners helping them finish second overall in the women’s race and fourth overall in the men’s race.The women’s team was anchored by Maggie Klein’s outstanding performance coming just shy of a first place finish, finishing second behind the leader with a time of 20:13. Klein ran a pace of 6:31, just eleven seconds slower than the first place finisher from Maine Maritime. Teammates Lauren Cosgrove and Amber Ruscoe finished not too far behind in 13th and 17th place respectively, helping the Spartans capture the teams second place finish.

The men’s team finished in fourth place in their race with a strong performance from Nohea King, who finished ninth overall only 20 seconds off of the pace of the leader. Isaac French and Nick Grasso followed up King not too far behind finishing in 12th and 13th place respectively.

The gutsiest performance of the weekend, and maybe of the season came from Nic Soares, better known to many on campus as ‘Powerhouse.’ Soares ran his final race with an injury that should have kept him out of the race all together. Although Soares didn’t compete for the lead at all, he raced for his pride and for his team.

“Nic said he was a senior and was determined that this was deciding the conference championship and he was going to run,” coach John Klein said. “I knew he wouldn’t get seriously injured but it was still going to be painful.”

For Klein, the second place finish capped an amazing season that saw her named NAC female runner of the week four times.

Her accomplishment was also noteworthy because she ran most of the season with a broken right wrist.

“For her to do what she did with a cast on her wrist-I’m real proud of her,” said coach Klein.

The team will next compete in the ECAC championships.

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