Three Runners make Vermont All-State Team
Castleton, VT - The Vermont Tech cross country teams competed in the Vermont Intercollegiate State championships on Friday.
The Women's team competed well. Led by freshman Maria Potvin the Ladies finished 3rd as a team in the state with two All State awards given to Maria Potvin for her 8th place finish and Cassidy Lewis for her 9th place finish. "We ran really well today " stated coach Dunkle. "The team is evolving and becoming more experienced". Dunkle noted that all but 1 of the women on the team are freshman with some never racing cross country before. " It takes a bit of time to figure out race strategy and race abilities. Throw that in with different terrains at each race, cross country can be challenging. I am really proud how each of the Women train and the results they are getting." We had a great effort with our freshman runners, including Anglea Lazzaro finished in 17th place, Emma Sanders in 21st and Juniior Olivia Machado in 22nd place. The Women outpaced NCAA Division III schools Northern Vermont University Lyndon and Johnson to end up 3rd for the meet.
On the Mens side Vermont Tech also finished 3rd outrunning both Northern Vermont University Lyndon and Johnson. Vermont Tech was led by Tyler Dunham who finished6th overall to make the all-state team with a personal best 8K time of 29:58 followed by Matt Kelly at 32:06, Jon Puffer at 35:42, Matt Stretton at 37:28 , Kevin Kressock at 37:29 and Ben Fontaine who finished with a PR of 1:06;09 When asked about the Team Dunkle seemed enthusiastic. " Tyler joined the sub 30 club which is a small group of 4 runners at Vermont Tech over the past 10 years who have accomplished that feat. His run today is the fastest since 2016 by a member of the VTC Men's team. "We had Jon run a 6 minute PR and great performances by Both Matt Kelly and Matt Stretton. Kevin is fighting off a stomach bug and ran well despite that and Ben Fontaine works as hard as anyone I know. He is making great progress. The challenge for the team ", said Dunkle, "is to run a bit fasater for the conference meet. We are training hard for this. It is shaping up to be a great race between the members of the conference. Tyler is working really hard and has brought the team along in that enthusiasm so I would say the conference looks better than a month ago."
The team is off this next weekend and will train hard as they prepare for a meet on October 12th in Montreal, Canada.
