State College, Pa., Nov. 13, 2004 - The Penn State men¡¯s cross country team finished seventh today at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic regional meet, hosted by Penn State. The men scored a total of 204 points and competed against 22 teams. The No. 7 ranked Georgetown finished first with 49 points, American finished second with 63 points and the University of Pennsylvania took third with 112 points.
Senior Rod Koborsi from Georgetown finished first with a time of 30:24 and fellow Hoya junior Chris Lukezic finished second with a time of 30:31. Sophomore Robert Curtis from Villanova finished third with a time of 30:33.
Sophomore All-Big Ten and All-Region runner Dan Mazzocco (Pittsburgh, Pa.) finished fifth today and posted a time of 30:36. Mazzocco is the men¡¯s top runner and automatically qualifies for the NCAA Championships.
Rounding out the top 20 spots was senior Joel Moceri (Reading, Pa.) who finished 17th with a time of 31:04. The other top seven finishers for Penn State was senior Chris Foster (Severna Park, Pa.) who finished 21st (31:11), freshman Oskar Nordenbring (Bloomfield, N.J.) finished 81st (32:49), freshman Edward Quinn (Rush, N.Y.) finished 84th (32:59), junior Patrick Murphy finished 94th (33:19) and junior Matt Lincoln (Toronto, Canada) finished 105th (33:46).
¡°It turned out to be a really good cross country day, the winds died down and the temperature was perfect for cross country running. Georgetown had a great team effort,¡± said Penn State Head Coach Harry Groves.
The top two teams, Georgetown and American, automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships to be held on Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Teams can then be chosen as at-large selections based on their season records. The top four men who placed in the top 15 in the Regional meet and are not on one of the teams that have automatically qualified or have been chosen at-large are then also selected to compete in the Championships.
Next up for the men's team who are not traveling to the NCAA Championships is the ICAAAA Championships on November 20th. The meet is set to begin at 10:00 a.m.
