Franciscan University takes AMCC Championship

Altoona, PA-The Franciscan University of Steubenville's men's and women's cross country teams stormed the NCAA Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Cross Country Championships this Saturday. The women came away with the Championship title while the men's team placed runner-up. FUS had seven of the twenty spots composing the AMCC All- Conference Team team.

For the men's race, freshman Bill Jones placed first running the 8k race in 27:02, leaving a 43 second gap in between himself and the second place runner, Kevin Gorny from Penn-State Behrend. Placing second on Franciscan's men's team and fourth overall was freshman Kevin Leroy running in 28:23. Junior Kevin Codd was the third and last male athlete to make the all-conference team placing eighth overall and running in 29:10. Bringing in the varsity team was freshman Marcus Fluty placing 13th and Junior Greg Pine placing 25th. The men's team scored 48 points total coming in second only to Penn State Behrend with 17 points.

The women's team competed with phenomenal talent. Junior Erin Bliss placed first in the conference running the 6k race in 23:48 minutes. Sophomore Monica Rust came in a close second with a time of 23:56. Sophomore Anna Scarnecchia improved, running third for the team, placing seventh overall and running in a time of 25:05. Freshman Anna Hogan was not far behind coming in ninth place and completing the race in 25:19. Freshman Jessica Schanilec stepped in for freshman Annie Asmussen when Annie was not able to finish the race due to an injury. Schanilec brought in the Varsity team running in 27:02 and placing 16th. The women's team scored 35 points to take the Championship title for the first year of their AMCC conference membership.

"I am really proud of how the team has performed this season," commented head coach Dr. Dan Kuebler post-race. "Everyone gave it their all for this last meet and we came away with something to show for it".