Staten Island college sports: CSI honors four decades of cross country at school

The College of Staten Island’s athletic department honored over four decades of the school’s cross country program with a ceremony of recognition last weekend.

The celebration, which took place during halftime of the men’s basketball game against D’youville College (a subsequent Dolphins’ victory) brought together founding team members Jeff Benjamin and Darryl Petersen, alongside former coach Robert Russo, whose team won its second of three consecutive CUNY championships 10 years ago.

“The 2014 men’s team truly accomplished something special that season as they proved to the rest of the conference that they were the team to beat that year,” said Russo. “With many team and personal successes that season, these athletes made a statement that the prior year’s championship in 2013 was just the beginning of how competitive they can be.”

Andrew Scharf, who in 2014 led the Dolphins to the championship with his overall victory, joined fellow alums Kenneth Morella, Liam McMunn, Rich Ruggiero, Josh Ribaudo, Samuel Obisanya, Justin Mills and Khaled Halwani at the ceremony. Also honored were assistant coach Christine Pagano and volunteer assistant coach Dan Caggiano

“We’re very grateful to Brian Guidera (acting AD), Joe Foreman, Mike Mauro, Emily Albano and the rest of the athletics department for bringing everyone back,” said Benjamin, a member of the CSI Sports Hall of Fame who also currently teaches a Sports Business Management course at the school.

“It was a lot of fun to see everyone.”

“The reunion provided an opportunity for the guys to meet alumni from earlier in the cross country program’s history like Jeff, Darryl and Andrew Pate,” said Russo.

“As I was proud of them back then, reminiscing and learning about the people they have become made me proud of this team once again.”