Back in action
Knights cross country opener at Fisher
Photo Courtesy of Geneseo Knights
Geneseo Cross Country (GXC) is back in action this fall at the Eighth Annual Fisher-Rodenbeck Invitational, hosted at St. John Fisher University. The men’s and women’s teams placed second at the meet, both just behind the University of Buffalo. Among the other division three schools competing, Geneseo blew the competition out of the water—so let’s dive into their performances!
Having placed second overall at the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships last November in Spartanburg, SC, the GXC men’s team has a lot of eyes on them this season. With the loss of Ryan Hagan, who last season set the Division III record in the outdoor 1500m at 3:37.19 and came fourth individually at the cross country national championships, the team wants to show that their depth and speed haven’t gone anywhere—and they didn’t disappoint.
Freshman Jake Gaudette led the charge for the Knights, placing second in the meet with a time of 19:35.2. The men’s race is normally eight kilometers, or just about five miles, but today they ran a 6k, or about 3.7 miles. That puts Jake’s average mile pace at 5:15 per mile! Following close behind were senior Sam Vigilone in 20:04.7, freshman Nathan Geroux in 20:05.2, freshman Daniel McPherson in 20:08.4, and freshman Owen Shaffer Sermini in 20:22.7, rounding out the top five for Geneseo. Freshman Brian Guiheen and junior Tyler Fischer followed up the Geneseo pack as displacers with times of 20:25.5 and 20:28.0, respectively. Remarkably, this led to the men having all top seven runners within 53 seconds of each other.
In a cross country meet, the top five athletes are the scoring athletes for their team, while the sixth and seventh place runners are called displacers. If a team’s displacer athlete places above another team’s scoring athlete, that team’s score gets pumped up a point, negatively affecting their overall score. What you place overall in the meet is the score you receive, so much like golf, the winning team has the lowest score. University of Buffalo managed 19 points to edge past the Knights’ 38. This, however, put Geneseo 75 points ahead of Nazareth in 3rd with 113 points, securing the win among Division III schools at the meet.
The GXC women brought the same fire to Fisher as the men last weekend. Coming off a successful 2025 season themselves, the women were looking to show the competition that they were ready to perform. Leading the charge over the 4k (~2.5-mile) course were freshmen Danielle List in a time of 15:34.3, closely followed by Mya Patti in 15:41.9, Maggie Christenson in 15:42.8, Alexa Wolfe in 15:50.8, and Camryn Szokoli in 15:53.1 to round out the top five, with Ruby Janssen and Julianna Macaskill coming in as displacers with times of 16:08.5 and 16:14.4, respectively. All seven women managed to cross the tape within 40 seconds of each other.
Just like the men, Buffalo managed to prevail against the Knights in a close battle, 28-36, but Geneseo won handily against the rest of the Division III field, beating third-place Nazareth by 70 points, 36-106. While Geneseo didn’t have all of their athletes at this meet, it is important to note the amount of early talent seen among the freshman class on both the men’s and women’s teams.
Stay tuned for GXC’s next appearance in the Yellowjacket Invitational at Genesee Valley Park, Saturday, Sept. 19—SUNY G BELIEVE!