Tight races at Cranberry

This past weekend consisted of the first NECTC race of the season at the Cranberry Trifest Sprint Triathlon. There were over 90 collegiate athletes in attendance and 12 teams.

A tight race among the top of the men's field between Karim Mabrouk (UCONN) and Steven Vitabile (Rutgers) finished with Mabrouk making a final move on the run to beat out Vitabile by merely 4 seconds. But it was Alex Springer (MIT) finishing in 3rd with 96 points that would lead his team to the overall victory over Mabrouk's UCONN team.

MIT had strong performances all around with 4 out of the top 15 athletes. (Alex Springer 3, Ben Woolston 7, Zachary Ulissi 12, and Sam Nicaise 13)

The other major story from the men's field was the fight between the teams finishing 5-8th who all finished within 4 points of eachother. Colin Trettel (UVM) lead his team with 70 points to pull to the top of that tight race with 198 points for UVM. Next, James Petersen (Bentley) and Robert Nathan (Northeastern) led their teams with 90 and 74 points respectively to help their teams tie for 6th with 196 points. Drexel finished off the tight race with 194 points.

On the female side Riley Lantz (UVM) swam away from the competition with the 3rd fastest swim, passed the remaining two on the bike and never looked back. The race for second place overall between Samantha Fox (Drexel) and Hayden Hughes (USCGA) came down to Fox being able to hold off Hughes' and her second overall fastest run time (20:45) on the day by just 4 seconds.

The female team race was a two team battle for first bewteen Drexel and Rutgers. In the end Drexel needed every fmeale they had with a win by only 12 points. Samantha Fox (Drexel) led her team with 98 points, but it is clear to see that it takes a team to win as without Jenna Schabdach's (Drexel) 30 points, they would have fallen to second.

Top 10 Male Teams:

MIT 388

UCONN 366

USCGA 318

Rutgers 272

UVM 198

Bentley 196

Northeasten 196

Drexel 194

UMA 166

Stevens 106

Top 10 Female Teams: