CSAC Cross Country Championship PageCSAC Championship Program La Plume, PA – Keystone College's men's and women's cross country teams are set to compete in Saturday's Colonial States Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday. This year's conference meet will be run at McDade Park in Scranton and hosted by Marywood University. The women's 5K race will start at 11:00 a.m. followed by the men's 8K race at 12:00 p.m.
Keystone's women's team will look to improve upon last fall's sixth-place showing at the CSAC Championships. Senior
Shannon Vairo (Scranton, PA/Scranton) has earned First Team All-CSAC honors with top-seven finishes in the last two conference championship meets including a sixth place result last year.
Tameka Wood (Bronx, NY/DeWitt Clinton ),
Nicole Delevan (Forty Fort, PA/Wyoming Valley West), and
Kelly Fisher (Weatherly, PA/Weatherly Area), along with Vairo, have paced the Giants throughout the fall. Keystone finished seventh earlier this year in the CSAC Championship Preview Meet at McDade Park.
Five-time CSAC runner of the week Emma Doughman of Marywood enters Saturday's race as the one to beat after narrowly outdistancing Gwynedd Mercy University's Christina Smith by 15 seconds last year. Doughman and Smith are among the top four runners returning to the field this year, in addition to Centenary College's Priscilla Ortiz (third, 23:38) and Gwynedd Mercy's Brittany Finn (fourth, 23:55). Other all-conference runners returning along with Vairo (t-sixth, 23:58) are Marywood's Melissa Froh (t-sixth, 23:58), Immaculata's Diana Cusick (ninth, 24:25), Gwynedd Mercy's Hannah Geiger (11th, 24:38) and Emily Makara (12th, 24:44) and Centenary's Abigail Voelkner (14th, 24:46).
Gwynedd Mercy narrowly bested Marywood for the women's title by three points in last year's 6K race.
On the men's side, Keystone is looking to break through to win a conference title after finishing as the CSAC runner-up in each of the past three seasons.
John Ciccone (Moscow, PA/North Pocono) has led the Giants throughout the fall, capturing four weekly CSAC awards including three Runner of the Week honors.
Marcus Ward (Scranton, PA/Scranton) and
Kyle Steiner (Sugarloaf, PA/Hazleton Area) have enjoyed strong seasons while
David Strum (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) will look to return to the All-Conference team after taking home Second Team All-CSAC accolades last year with a 14
th place finish at the CSAC Championships. Keystone finished third in the CSAC Championship Preview Meet on September 5th at McDade Park.
Immaculata University's Angel Chimal Rodriguez looks to defend his title from 2014 after traversing the course at Cairn University's Core Creek Park in 26:19 to outpace the field. Along with Strum, other returning all-conference performers include Gwynedd Mercy University's Matt Brown (third, 27:05), Marywood University's Devon Clarke (sixth, 28:04) and Adam Larsen (seventh, 28:08), Cairn University's Eric Macintire (eighth, 28:11), Caleb Basile (ninth, 28:49), Matthew Benedict (10th, 28:55) and Matthew Basile (11th, 29:14), Immaculata's Will Martin (13th, 29:21).
Cairn is the defending champion in the men's race after out-pointing runner-up Keystone by seven points a year ago.
