2011 Women’s Cross Country Preview

The Keuka women's cross country team will feature a mix of talented returners and exciting newcomers.

Over the offseason, Keuka College cross country head coach Katie Marcella made it a prime goal to recruit talented youths to boost the numbers of both her men’s and women’s squads.

The Keuka women graduated talented Chelsea Socha, who carried the Storm to a third-place finish at the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) championships while securing a second-place finish. Socha would go on to qualify for the NCAA’s Division III Atlantic Regional championships, placing 41st among the nation’s top runners.

While Socha’2s immense talents will be hard to replace, Marcella’s women’s team will feature several talented returning harriers, led by junior Elizabeth Gorman (Waverly, NY/Waverly), senior Stephanie Pontes (Pompton Lakes, NJ/Lakes) and senior Maddie Reynolds (Clinton, NY/Clinton). Gorman and Pontes each logged top-30 finishes during the 2010 NEAC championship meet. Gorman posted seven third-place team finishes and one second-place team finish while Pontes added six fourth-place team finishes to go with one third-place and one fifth-place finish.

Gorman’s top time in a 5K race was 23:24 during the Oct. 16 William Smith Invitational while Pontes’ best effort came during the NEAC championships, when she raced in 24:04, an improvement of four minutes and 53 seconds off of her season-opening 5K performance during the SUNY IT Invitational.

Newcomers Sarah May (Geneseo, NY/Geneseo), Courtney Woolever (Vestal, NY/Vestal), Elizabeth Ryan (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes), Tatiana Pena (Hicksville, NY/Hicksville) and sophomore Hannah Capozzi (Alpine, NY/home schooled) make up the rest of the 2011 women’s squad.  

Gorman and Pontes will serve as Keuka’s co-captains.

“We have a great freshman class,” said Marcella, who enters her third season leading the Green and Gold.

“I am very excited about having the number of runners that we have this year. It really has been a rebuilding (effort) these last few years. … I’m excited to see what we can do this year. … We have strong returning runners and I expect to be right in the mix in the NEAC.”

Keuka opens its season on the road Saturday at the fifth annual SUNY IT Invitational.