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Patriot League Champs!
AU Men place six in the top-10 to claim first league title

Nov. 2, 2002 | Results

WEST POINT, N.Y. --American University's men's cross country team claimed its first Patriot League title ever, winning today's meet with 28 points. The Eagles defeated Army who had won the previous two titles. Head coach Matt Centrowitz was named Patriot League Men's Coach of the Year and AU earned six All-Patriot First-Team honors and one Second-Team awards.

The Eagles ran a strong race as the squad held a pack together through most of the early miles. On a difficult course, the team moved up with Matt Seymour, Matt Cooke, Sean Duffy and Frank Malpigli running in the lead pack. With just over one mile to go, the pack broke up and Bucknell's Bryan Johnston took the lead. Seymour and Cooke gave chase but were unable to catch him.

Seymour was the first AU finisher, coming in second in the meet behind Johnston in 25:51.81. Cooke was close behind in fourth place for the Eagles in 25:54.67. Coming in fifth for AU was Duffy (25:56.37) with Malpigli finishing eighth (26:11.67).

Running just off of the lead pack, Pat MacAdie and Sean O'Brien finished ninth (26:12.20) and tenth (26:13.23) respectively. Phil Gaeta placed 19th in the meet in 26:39.32 to earn Second-Team honors. Also running for the Eagles was Danny Maurer who placed 26th (27:02.04), Will Knox who placed 34th (27:17.83) and Chad Young who finished 52nd (28:11.48)

AU finished with 28 points. Army was second overall with 46. The Eagles' next meet is Nov. 16 at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals held in Davis, W. Va.