Photo Courtesy of SUNY Geneseo
The Geneseo Knights women’s cross country team scored a rare perfect score at the Empire 8 Cross Country Championships. Looking ahead they will be competing at the NCAA DIII Cross Country Nationals.
Geneseo Cross Country toed the line on Halloween morning, ready to race at the Empire 8 Cross Country Championships held at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Since joining the conference back in 2024, both the men’s and women’s teams have gone undefeated at the conference meet. This also holds true for both men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track teams. And once again, the Knights did not disappoint, dominating the meet with two team victories. Let’s dive into who made these wins possible!
Remember, scoring in cross country is different from other sports. Your goal as a team is to finish the race with the least amount of points possible. Your score as an individual is tied to where you placed in the race: first place earns one point, and so on. The top five runners on each team can score, with the sixth and seventh-place runners acting as displacers, who can increase other teams’ points by beating some of their scoring athletes. Displacers do not score any points themselves—they displace others’ scores.
For the men, senior Collin Brown crossed the tape first in 25:10.1 to take the individual title. Following behind him to score were freshman Jake Gaudette for third place in 25:32.0, sophomore Ian Zehnder for fifth place in 25:48.9, junior Ethan Becker for seventh place in 26:01.2, and freshman Henry Nilsen for eighth place in 26:14.2. Coming in for the Knights as displacers were freshman Brian Guiheen and senior Sam Vigione in tenth and eleventh place, with times of 26:16.6 and 26:24.1, respectively. As a team, the men scored a low 24 points over second-place Houghton. The team’s spread, which is the fifth fastest scoring athlete’s time minus the fastest scoring athlete, gives an idea of how close together the pack was. In this race, the Knights were only separated by 64 seconds, with an average time of 25:45.3.
On the women’s side, the Knights put together a rare perfect score of 15 points, meaning Geneseo had athletes finish 1-5, and they actually had athletes finish in the top eight places. Winning the individual title was junior Ari Reback with a time of 21:50.1. Following behind her were sophomore Alexa Kosier for second place in 21:55.5, senior Shelby Boise for third place in 22:02.4, sophomore Greylynn Guyer for fourth in 22:02.5, and sophomore Annabelle Czekanski for fifth place in 22:02.8. Coming in as displacers were junior Ella Grinnell and sophomore Kaitlyn Hotaling for sixth and seventh place, with times of 22:07.5 and 22:10.7, respectively. The girls’ time spread was only 12.7 seconds, with an average time of 21:58.7.
This is another big win for the Knights, keeping their Empire 8 victory streak alive for another season. It will be interesting to see if the track squads can do the same come indoor track. Looking ahead, the regional competition will be hosted at Fredonia, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) DIII Cross Country Nationals will be held in Northfield, Minnesota. The boys team stormed to a second-place team win last year in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which I was lucky enough to go see in person, so I am excited to see what both men’s and women’s teams have to offer this championship season after such a dominant conference win. SUNY G BELIEVE!