Strong showing by the A-team of Ham, Birotte and Trujillo

Colton Ham ran a split of 10:10 to help lead the Franklin Pierce Men's Cross Country A-Team to a seventh place finish at Saturday's Skyhawk Relays.

EASTON, Mass. (September 1, 2012) -- In its first race since being revived as a varsity program last fall, the Franklin Pierce University men's cross country team turned in a strong showing Saturday at the Skyhawk Relays in Easton, Mass. Franklin Pierce entered three teams in the event and the Ravens' A-Team showed flashes of exciting things to come in the future as it placed seventh out of 23 teams in a time of 31:31. The six-mile relay race was hosted by Stonehill.

Franklin Pierce's A-Team consisted of freshmen Colton Ham (Webster, N.H.) and Chris Birotte (Lynn, Mass.) and sophomore Joe Trujillo (Derry, N.H.). Ham ran the opening leg of the relay for the unit and finished in a time of 10:10. Birotte followed in the second leg and was clocked in at 10:34, while Trujillo ran the third and final portion of the race and produced a time of 10:49.

The squad finished ahead of one of Stonehill's entries, all three of Saint Anselm's teams and all four units entered by Merrimack. Stonehill's A-Team of Ethan Penney, Sean Hanlon and Tim Johnson won the event in a time of 29:52.

Franklin Pierce's D-Team finished 12th in a time of 33:09 and included members Ryan Cross (Suffern, N.Y.), Eric Gallos (Ventnor, N.Y.) and Mike Frappier (Concord, N.H.).

The Ravens' C-Unit followed right behind in 13th in a time of 33:32. Freshmen Luke McCann (Galloway, N.J.), Chaz Munroe (Concord, N.H.) and Isaac Fithian (Kingston, N.H.) made up the squad.

Franklin Pierce returns to action next Saturday when the Ravens race in the Bryant Invitational in Smithfield, R.I. The men's race will begin at 10 a.m. and will be a 5,000-meter challenge.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men's cross country, please visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). You can also follow Franklin Pierce cross country/track & field and head coach Zach Emerson through Twitter at www.twitter.com/RavensCoachXCTF(.)