CUNYAC Cross Country Presented by US Army ROTC

The CUNY Athletic Conference and the US Army ROTC are happy to announce their Men’s Cross Country All-Stars and major award winners for the 2014 season. Lehman’s John Pollina was named the Performer of the Year and Staten Island’s Andrew Scharf was named the Rookie of the Year. Staten Island also earned this year’s Coach of the Year, Robert Russo. For the first time in conference history, CUNYAC also named a Sportsmanship Team for Men’s Cross Country with Joseph Benson of CCNY receiving the top sportsmanship honor. CCNY, Hunter, John Jay, and Staten Island are represented by three all-stars each and Baruch is represented by two all-stars.

Performer of the Year, John Pollina, of Lehman College, continued his impeccable performance as a member of the Men’s Cross Country Team in 2014. The Staten Island native was the Preseason Performer of the Year and, during the regular season, was named ECAC Runner of the Week twice and CUNYAC Performer of the Week three times. He also led the Lightning to the CUNY Athletic Conference Championships, held at Van Cortlandt Park. Due to his hard work and passion to succeed, Pollina posted a time of 27:40.1, which was not only a personal season-best, but was good enough for Pollina to capture first place in the tournament, while Lehman placed sixth in the championship event.

“I just wanted to prove myself,” said Pollina. “I am never afraid to race hard, and this year was my year.”

Rookie of the Year, Andrew Scharf has immediately made his presence known due to his contributions, as a freshman, to Staten Island’s Men’s Cross Country team. In his first season, Scharf has been recognized for his performances being awarded 2 ECAC Rookie of the Week awards and 3 CUNYAC Rookie of the Week awards. At the Staten Island Invitational, Scharf was the first runner from Staten Island to cross the finish line at 18:14.1. The 7th fastest 5k time in Staten Island history placed Scharf 17th overall and 2nd out of all CUNYAC participants.

Coach of the Year, Robert Russo took over Staten Island’s Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams in 2009. He attended Wagner College and was a member of the Cross Country team. During his time there, Russo was awarded Most Valuable Player honors in 2001 and 2002. The highlight of Russo’s career with the Dolphins thus far is the first ever CUNYAC Championship for the Men’s Cross Country team and an NCAA appearance in 2013.  

The Dolphins have now achieved two CUNYAC Championship victories in consecutive seasons. Staten Island finished with 58 points, which was 6 points better than John Jay. Liam McMunn, Justin Mills, and Samuel Obisanya led the Dolphins to last year’s CUNYAC Championship title.

Leading the Sportsmanship Team is CCNY’s freshman Joseph Benson. He is joined by seniors Christopher Augustin of Brooklyn, Cristian Baskerville of John Jay, Jesus Medina of York, Christian Rojas of Hunter, juniors Wilson Hooi of Baruch, Dashaun Michie of Lehman, and sophomore Kenneth Morella of Staten Island

“I am very honored to receive the Sportsmanship Award and conference All-Star for cross country,” said Benson. “Being named an all-star after the conference meet is a huge honor and definitely came as a surprise but being recognized for all the hard work I put into this season with two awards is hard to put into words. Although its an individual award, I'd like to thank my team for always being there, especially my teammate Thomas Sullivan. These awards are truly an honor and I am very grateful.”

For a complete list of this year’s All-Star selections and Sportsmanship awards, reference the table below.

2014 CUNYAC All-Stars

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