Breakthroughs: Impressive performances at RPI Fairgrounds
Photo Courtesy of Cameron Garofalo- SUNY Geneseo
At the RPI Fairgrounds Showdown this past Saturday, the Geneseo Knights Cross Country (XC) team copped two massive wins on the men’s and women’s sides. This is the Knights’ third competition of the season, with a section of the team heading to Robert Wesleyan on Saturday as well. With two low-scoring victories and a slew of personal records (PR), let’s dive into the results and see who brought the heat at RPI!
The men’s team took the meet over RPI in their home meet, winning 24-41. For those who are new to XC, every team’s goal is to score the lowest number of points. Each athlete who crosses the finish line gets a score that corresponds with their place (first place scores one point, and so on). Coming in second place in a tight race was senior Collin Brown, dipping under the 24-minute barrier for the first time with a performance of 23:58.0. Filling out the remaining scoring Knights coming fifth through ninth place were junior James Tette in 24:13.9, senior Emerson Comer in 24:14.4, junior Owen Murphy in 24:15.3, and junior Thomas Blake in 24:19.6. Senior Mike Taranto (18th) and freshman Jake Gaudett (31st) rounded out the squad with times of 24:39.6 and 25:03.5, respectively. All of these athletes ran PR’s, and remarkably, 14 out of the 15 men who raced Saturday PR’d.
The spread, which is the fifth-place athlete’s time minus the first-place athlete’s time on a team, was a mere 21.6 seconds for the Knights, shaving off considerable time from their performance last weekend with similar athletes. That spread was 45.7 seconds. This tightly packed squad shows the depth that the men’s team is carrying right now, a great sign for when championship season rolls around.
On the women’s side, there is a very similar story. Taking the victory over Vassar, 24-66, the Knights were led by senior Shelby Boise, coming in second place overall in a time of 21:10.5, a new PR. Coming close behind her to score was sophomore Alexa Kosier for third in 21:12.6, sophomore Greylynn Guyer for fourth in 21:13.1, sophomore Annabelle Czekanski for seventh in 21:35.1, and junior Ari Reback for tenth in 21:42.9. Closing out the squad was freshman Camryn Szokoli for 17th in 22:05.0 and sophomore Kaitlyn Hotaling for 20th in 22:07.2. All 15 women that competed PR’d at this meet. This was an impressive competition for both teams this weekend!
Just like the men, this spread was significantly shorter than the previous meet, clocked at 32.5 seconds compared to last week’s 57.7 seconds. Hopefully this trend will continue forward through the season and set the Knights up for some formidable performances as a team to climb the national rankings.
This coming weekend, the Knights split again to compete at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem and the Kara Hall Memorial Invitational in Fredonia. This was a massive step forward for the team, and it is looking like Geneseo is going to be making some noise once again on the national stage. Until next week—SUNY G BELIEVE!