The CLU men’s and women’s cross country teams have hit full stride this season while competing in the most recent SCIAC dual meets.

The Kingsmen finished together in eighth place with sophomore Matthew Garvin finishing as the front-runner in 36th place in a field of 131.

The Regals pulled off an overall fourth place finish with junior Melissa Skiba, finishing in second place in a field of 106.

Garvin, a young but established runner has picked up results for the Kingsmen throughout the season.

In his first race he finished fourth overall among the SCIAC competitors.

CLU Freshman, Nick Privitelli, another young runner finished second for the Kingsmen at the Multi-Dual meet Saturday, Oct. 13.

Also helping the team defeat Chapman University was freshman David Avila who finished just 26 seconds after Privitelli.

Juniors Mason Hill, Dominick Allen and Shawn Jackson finished within sight of one another. Finishing off the race for the Kingsmen was senior Dylan Perriseau.
The women stirred up the competition this year with the addition of junior runner Melissa Skiba.

Skiba finished second in three of the four races she has competed in, and won the UC Irvine invitational by 20 seconds.

“I really like racing a lot. I’m getting a lot of support from my teammates and feel like I can rely on them,” said Skiba. “The coaches have been really supportive and we communicate well with them so that we don’t push too hard.”

The Regals are a unique team this year because they have no freshman or seniors on their roster.

This could be an advantage for the Regals because all team members have a year of experience under them and none of them will graduate this year.

“I really want our team to place well in the SCIAC championships,” said Skiba. “We have a lot of potential and we haven’t tapped into our best yet and we are just working on getting to that point.”

The Kingsmen are well spread out with two rookies competing at a high level.

.The Kingsmen will bring back almost their entire experienced squad next year.

“The team is off to a good start. Although we didn’t do as well as we had hoped at Multi-Duals, we have been putting in a lot of work to get ready for the SCIAC Championships,” said Privitelli.

“The group isn’t just teammates, we’re friends. They have all been very friendly to me since I joined the team. We are starting to taper down and work on our speed as we near the end of the season.”

They are looking to improve as much as they can before the SCIAC Championship approaches on Saturday, Oct. 27 at Prado Park.

“By the SCIAC Championships, I think we will have a much faster team,” said Skiba.

Nicholas Ballou
Staff Writer
Published Oct. 24, 2012