Oct. 18, 2008

River Forest, IL - The Dominican University Cross Country teams traveled to the University of Wisconsin--Oshkosh to run in the Brooks Invitational, one of the most competitive NCAA Division III meets in the country, on Saturday. The women's 6K event featured four ranked teams and the men's competition showcased five of the top twenty teams in the nation.

The Stars took advantage of a flat, fast course on a windless, cool day to run personal best's throughout the roster. For the women's team, junior Megan Vaccaro (Oswego, IL) became the first competitor from the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) to break the 23:00 barrier in 2008, covering the course in 22:42 and placing 30th in the field of 415 finishers. Junior Susan Barron (Naperville, IL) covered the course in 25:32 while junior Annie Rohrbacher (Palatine, IL) returned from a month long injury to race to a 27:08 finish. Junior Melanie Bonifacio (Morton Grove, IL) and freshman Lubna Saleh rounded out the Stars finishers, completing the course in times of 28:55 and 30:00 respectively.

The men's team also cut minutes from each of their season best times. Leading the Dominican harriers was junior Ernesto Ramirez (Chicago, IL) who completed the course in 28:00, the fastest time run by a Dominican male runner in three years. Juniors Paul Gawlas (Park Forest, IL) and Joe Piatkiewicz (LaGrange, IL) joined in the fun by finishing in 33:47 and 33:53 respectively, while sophomore George Munteanu (Elmwood Park, IL) turned in a season best time of 36:58.

The Stars will travel to Concordia University Wisconsin on November 1 to compete in the NAC Championships.