2015 MAAC Men's Cross Country Championship 

PENNINGTON, N.J. – The Niagara University men's cross country team posted a program-best time at the 2015 MAAC Championship at Rosedale Park on Saturday.

The Purple Eagles ran the 8K event at 26:13.88 for the lowest team time posted in program history. Six of the seven runners set personal-bests, including Nick Orlowski and Freddie Liederbach who both broke the program record set by Orlowski on Oct. 2 at the Paul Short Invitational (25:56). Orlowski finished with a time of 24:48.12 to place 22nd overall while Liederbach had a time of 25:31.37 to place 55th out of 169 runners.  

"Our top two (Liederbach and Orlowski) both crushed the record Nick set a few weeks ago, and have set new personal bests beyond what they thought they were capable of," head coach Christine Kloiber said. "Nick's sub-25 was a revelation and Freddie's 25:31 was just as awesome. As seniors, along with Matt Pond, they raced their final championship as an NU athlete in the best way possible."

Ben Slate (26:41.26), Matt Pond (27:04.44), Sergio Cruz (27:10.19) and Brendan Doyle (29:46.33) all had personal-best times.

"Our younger guys all came up big as well," Kloiber said. "Brendan set a new personal record, Slate dropped a full minute, and our freshman Sergio made a huge mark with a big personal record as well. That pack of Pond, Slate, and Cruz came up big because of the synergy they had. Slate came in third and Pond came in fifth, but some of the most crucial points we collected were actually from Jordan, he battled in an extraordinary way and gave more heart in that race than I've seen by a runner before."

The Purple Eagles finished with 278 points to place 10th in the championship.

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