Nov. 1, 2008

River Forest, IL - The Dominican University cross country teams traveled to Mequon, Wis., on Saturday morning to compete at the 2008 Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Cross Country Championship and return home with the Megan Vaccaro (Oswego, IL) being crowned the NAC Women's Cross Country Individual Champion as she covered the 6-kilometer course in a personal best time of 22:40.

Vaccaro's record finish along with the a strong race from Susan Barron (Naperville, IL), who covered the course in a time of 25:39 to finish in 23 place helped the Stars to a sixth-place finish in the field of 11 women's cross country teams. Andrea Rohrbacher (Palatine, IL) and Erika Espinosa (Wheeling, IL) both turned in season-best times of 26:37 and 27:17 to finish third and fourth for the Stars respectively while Katie Kacic rounded out the Stars' top five scorers, finishing in 47th place in the field of 85 runners with a time of 27:33.

In the men's race, first year runner Ernesto Ramirez (Chicago, IL) earned all-conference honors as he cracked the top 15, covering the men's 8-kilometer course in a time of 27:38 also a personal record. Alonzo Banks (Dolton, IL), 32:40, Paul Gawlas (Park Forest, IL), 33:06, Joe Piatkiewicz (La Grange, IL), 33:58 and Conrad Sewinski (Park Ridge, IL) 37:06 rounded out the Stars' top five finishers in the men's race, helping Dominican to a ninth place finish. Banks, Gawlas and Sewinski all set personal records in the race.