Cross country ends year at A10 Championships

Delaney, Prisella, Izydorczak highlight Bonnies effort in Virginia

The St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Atlantic 10 Championships at Pole Green Park in Richmond, Virginia on Sat. Oct. 30.
The Bonnies finished fourteenth as a team with 453 points, while Dayton captured the championship with 72 points, with La Salle (75) following closely behind in second place.
William Delaney set his best career PR Atlantic 10 championship time at 27:25. Along with Delaney, many other runners pushed their limits and represented the Bonnies well at the Atlantic 10 Championship.
Delaney has been a huge contributor to the team’s success this season.
Head coach Bob MacFarlane expresses that Delaney stands as a top competitor here at St.Bonaventure but has areas he can improve upon.
“William had a breakout season this year, but his growth is in realizing that he needs to focus more on improving, rather than breaking records.” MacFarlane said.
Sophomore business major Nathan Prisella was one of the Bonnies’ standouts at the Atlantic 10 championship. Prisella took second on the team with his run of 27:49 at the Atlantic 10 Championship.
Prisella came into this season determined to show his worth to the Bonaventure cross country team, after sitting out a whole track season due to an achilles injury. Prisella sat down with Coach McFarlane and drew up a plan to come back to training.
“Coach was a big help in helping me improve my time, he did a great job this year mixing up the workouts and getting us in the best shape for our races,” Prisella said.
During his freshman season, Prisella finished second on the team at Atlantic 10 Championships, running an 8K time of 28:21.3.
“I didn’t want my injury to set me back,” Prisella said. “I wanted to do more, so I could not only get back to where I was when I raced freshman year, but pass it,” Prisella said.
“My thought process going into A10s was just to stay mentally tough and hit the splits that I needed to hit. I wanted to go out there and represent my team, as well as our school the best that I could, and in order to do that, I needed to be 100 percent in the race,” Prisella said.
Prisella plans to make a big contribution to the team next year as both a competitor and as a leader.
“I want to be someone on the team that people feel they can count on and look to for guidance. I want to always be known as a competitor and an athlete that would always give it his all and fight for every place for his team,” Prisella said.
Senior captain Emily Izydorczak finished 80th out of 130 competitors, running the 5K course in a time of 19:05.5.
“I want to see athletes mature throughout the years, and Emily has exceeded that. She just did her thing, and people followed her because of the worth ethic she’s developed throughout her four years here,” MacFarlane said.
Sophomore Natalie Cummings finished third on the squad with her PR run of 19:48.1, which surpassed her previous best of 20:09.2 last month.
“Going into the championship race, I knew not only myself, but the team went into it very prepared,” Cummings said, “This year, I made sure to prepare myself mentally for the race because I knew in the past, my mentality was one of my biggest weaknesses.”
Cummings paid tribute to Izydorczak’s leadership by saying, “she has been such an amazing leader, inspiration and friend to our whole team.”
Following in Izydorczak’s footsteps, Cummings has grown to become a contributing factor to the team.
“Cummings has become a very quiet leader, in the sense that she works in such a way that people want to follow her,” MacFarlane said.
With Cummings far more positive attitude towards training since an injury set back, she hopes to spread that positivity throughout the team in years to come.
The Bonnies’ showed up to the Atlantic 10 championship to compete, and to make the St.Bonaventure name known, and they did just that. The program has continued to grow throughout the years and will continue to do so, with the work ethic and mentality of each athlete.