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Marywood women's cross country team loses tiebreaker

Only a tiebreaker prevented Marywood University from winning a women's cross country league championship for the seventh time in eight years.

The team was one of three from Marywood that, along with one from the University of Scranton, had to settle for a runner-up finish in its conference Saturday.

Both cross country teams and the women's soccer team from Marywood finished second in the Colonial States Athletic Conference.

The Scranton men's soccer team was second in the Landmark Conference.

Marywood and Gwynedd-Mercy each scored 40 points in the CSAC women's cross country race. The tiebreaker compared each team's runners in order and Gwynedd-Mercy finished ahead of Marywood at three of the five spots to take the title.

Laruen Rustad was fifth, Colleen Spring sixth and Stephanie Bender seventh to earn first-team, all-star status. Amanda Misiak placed 10th and Sarah Bauer 12th to make the second team.

The men had five in the top 20, including Eric Spreckle, who finished fourth to become a first-team, all-star. Kenny Burdick, a freshman from Riverside, Dave Marra and Brian Lewis, a freshman from Scranton, finished in the top 14 to make the second team.

The Pacers were top-seeded and unbeaten in 14 women's soccer games before losing, 1-0, to Cabrini in overtime to miss out on a second straight berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.

Annmarie Kolla scored on a breakaway 4:54 into overtime to lift Cabrini to the win.

Catholic University topped the University of Scranton, 3-0, to keep the Royals from winning their first conference title since 1997 and reaching the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1993.

For more on local college sports, see next weekend's Scranton Edition of the Times Leader.