Nov. 17, 2008

River Forest, IL - Junior Megan Vaccaro (Oswego, IL) ran yet another personal best on Saturday as she competed, along with the rest of the Dominican University women's cross country team, at the 2008 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional on Saturday, covering the six-kilometer course in a time of 22:38.1 for a 17th place finish, narrowly missing the field of runners selected for the NCAA Division III National Race.

Freshman Katie Kacic (Lisle, IL) and junior Andrea Rohrbacher (Palatine, IL) placed 222nd and 223rd respectively with a time of 27:31 while Erika Espinosa placed 246th as she ran at a 7:36 pace. Freshman Lubna Saleh (Franklin Park, IL) rounded out the Stars five finishers, placing 272nd in the field of 292 runners. As a team, Dominican's women's cross country team placed 34th in the region, finishing ahead of three Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) teams.

In the men's race, first-year runner Ernesto Ramirez placed 165th in the field of 280 male runners for the Stars' top performance. The 6'2" junior covered the men's eight-kilometer course in a time of 28:07.5, 30 seconds of his personal best time of 27:37 he ran at the NAC Championships.

Along with Ramirez, juniors Paul Gawlas (Park Forest, IL) and Joe Piatkiewicz (LaGrange, IL) placed 274th and 278th respectively rounding out the Stars' three finishers in the race.