Some 20 colleges from NCAA Division I, II and III and junior college schools turned out for the start of the intercollegiate cross country meet over the five-mile Van Cortlandt Park course in the Bronx.
One individual from Monroe College, which has branches in Westchester County, The Bronx, and Cantaries Hills, turned in a decent performance even through he did not come out victorious. Kamar Harris, who never did cross country before, and is making a debut in it, is a freshman who shows some promise on the team. He was timed in 33:39.35 for 49th place in scoring and 56 overall.
Another who turned out a decent performance was Mpho Makofane, a sophmore, who was the top runner for Monroe in last week’s meet, conducted by Fordham University and called the Fordham Fiasco. Mpho was clocked in 27:56.38, and placed third overall for scoring purposes.
After the runners took the summer off except for practices as directed by the coaching staff, they are now set for action during the rest of the season.
As a team Monroe placed ninth with 212 points among Division II and III colleges as well as junior college ones.
East Stroudsburg who compiled 23 points captured the team title as in cross country the college with the lowest total number turned out to be the winner of the race as a team.
Meanwhile, Dowling’s Vichinsky Elien ran a 34:01.69 for 59 place overall and as a team finished with 315 markers and 11th place in the team standings.
A returnee from last year’s team, Elien is in his third year of running in college, a member of the East Coat Conference.
Sports is in the Elien family, for his father Serd, played soccer in Haiti. The student athlete at Dowling likes to run and does so all year round.
“My specialties on the track are the 55-meter hurdles, 1000 meters and 800 meters,” he said. He also competes on relay teams.
Elien brings to Dowling experience as a runner, as he spent his high school days at Wet Babylon in Suffolk County where he was a member of the track and cross country teams.
The Dowling team certainly improved since last year in cross country and could be a contender in the East Coast Conference meet coming up in mid October at CW Post College.
In soccer, Monroe College is undefeated through four games, showing three wins and one tie. Four teams are in the Region 15 Division of the National Junior College Athletic Association. The other three are Westchester Community, Globe and ASA.
Monroe is paced on offense by mid-fielder Evan Finnegan, who scored the game winning goal with 30 seconds left in a recent contest and goal keeper Robert Ekron, who has looked very good at the nets.
