FREDONIA, N.Y. - Led by seven top-40 finishers, the Cortland women's cross country team finished in second place out of 10 schools at the 2018 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championships, hosted by Fredonia State.

Cortland earned its best team finish since 2010 with a final team score of 107 points, six better than New Paltz and 14 ahead of Brockport. Geneseo won its eighth straight league title with a perfect 15 points.

Junior Eliza Nichols (Smithtown/Smithtown West) finished 18th out of 104 runners on a very muddy and sloppy 6,000-meter course with a time of 26:15.6. Elise Ramirez of Geneseo was the individual champion in 24:02.8. Nichols was three spots short of earning All-SUNYAC honors, which go to the top 15 finishers.

Sophomore Sam Himes (Buffalo/Sweet Home) was 23rd in 26:31.0 and freshman Maddie Ciuffetelli (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills East) placed 25th in 26:40.7. Freshman Gabby Moncada (Tully) and junior Jill Leggiero (East Greenbush/Columbia) were 33rd (27:00.0) and 34th (27:01.4), respectively, while freshman Courtney Schoepflin (Chaffee/Pioneer) and junior Courtney Maurin (Pine Bush) finished 39th (27:11.9) and 40th (27:12.6), respectively.

Cortland will compete in the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regionals in Glassboro, N.J. on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 11 a.m., followed by the men at noon.

Complete Results:
Women
Men
SUNYAC Photo Gallery

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick following SUNYAC Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships:

Going into the SUNYAC Championships today, Coach Naylon and I were thinking that if the ladies had a really good day, we might be able to steal third.  But we also knew that we could run well and be fourth or fifth! 

The most telling aspect of how today went for then women's team might be that two of our normal top five weren't scorers for us - one of them (Shayna Will) lost a shoe to the mud!  Our depth as a program was crucial today, as shown by the fact that our 6th and 7th runners displaced scoring runners on every team we beat.

We're really proud of the commitment the ladies showed during the race today to achieve a big step forward for the program!

The men's team had a pretty good performance today as well!  Ryan Konotopskyj had a great day (we thought that if he ran well he might be around 25th), and Grant Boyd made big moves after falling in the first mile to be our second finisher.  The top three teams in the conference are all deserving of a national rankings at this point in time, so while we aren't happy with the team finish, we do recognize that this is a step in the right direction for us to be where we want to be as a program.

I'd like to commend the staff at Fredonia for doing an excellent job of hosting the Championships under very challenging conditions.  I'd also like to thank the friends, family and alumni that made it to he race, as well as all the alumni who contacted us both before and after to cheer the team on!