Cunetta Takes Second in Collegiate Debut

HAMDEN, Conn. – Even though the Bulldogs did not have enough runners to field a team at the Quinnipiac Invitational on Saturday, the individuals who competed put on excellent performances in their first meet of the season, with senior Chris Scavone winning the 8K race in 26:23. (The rest of the team opened at the Dartmouth Invitational last weekend.) Head coach Dan Ireland said he was pleased with all four runners who competed at Quinnipiac.

"We didn't know what to expect, but those four guys ran extremely well," Ireland said.

In his first collegiate race, freshman Michael Cunetta also had an impressive race, placing second overall in 26:50. Junior David Demres followed not far behind in fourth (27:04), along with senior James Wyper in 10^th place (27:43).

The Bulldogs started out strong with Scavone leading the entire race from the 800-meter mark. Cunetta worked his way up from seventh or eighth place to join Demres, who was running in second. Halfway into the race, Scavone, Demres and Cunetta were in first, second and third, respectively, before Cunetta took off with one mile to go to notch second place. 

Stonehill won the invitational with 20 points, followed by Quinnipiac with 37 points. Although it was a smaller meet this year with only two other teams, the Bulldogs now look even more solid going into their annual dual meet with Harvard next weekend.

"The idea was to go out there and have their first race of the season and have a very positive one before Harvard," Ireland said.

With strong openings at both Dartmouth and Quinnipiac, the Bulldogs' next competition will be the Harvard-Yale meet at home on Sept. 24.

Report by Miriam Cho '13, Yale Sports Publicity