MILTON, N.Y. – Three Cortland runners earned All-SUNYAC honors with top-15 finishes and the Red Dragons placed third in the final team standings at the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Women's Cross Country Championships. The race was hosted by SUNY New Paltz at the Hudson Valley Sports Dome.

Cortland finished with a team score of 66 points, easily ahead of fourth-place Brockport's 121. Geneseo won its ninth straight team crown with 23 points, followed by New Paltz with 50.

Sam Himes (Amherst/Sweet Home) finished in sixth place out of 93 runners in 23:24.7 over 6,000 meters to earn second-team all-league recognition. Sydney Smith (Niskayuna) and McKenzie Dombroski (Chittenango) were both third-team all-conference – Smith placed 11th in 24:00.5 and Dombroski was 15th in 24:12.6. The top 15 finishers at the meet are All-SUNYAC, with the first five on the first team, spots 6-10 on the second team and the 11th through 15th finishers on the third team. Geneseo's Genny Corcoran was the league champion in 22:08.8, more than 47 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Cortland's next four finishers were all in the top 30. Madison Ciuffetelli (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills East) finished 18th (24:29.6) and Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) placed 22nd (24:42.8). Courtney Maurin (Pine Bush) ended in 24th place (24:56.0) and Jill Leggiero (East Greenbush/Columbia) was 26th (24:58.7).

Two other Red Dragons also finished in the top half of the field as Sera King (Oceanside) was 36th (25:46.0) and Courtney Schoepflin (Chaffee/Pioneer) was 42nd (26:01.6).

Cortland returns to action Saturday, Nov. 16, at the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regionals in Canton, hosted by St. Lawrence University.

Complete Results:
Women
Men

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:

First, I'd like to thank the parents, friends, and alumni that made the trip to support the program today.  We had a lot of folks show up and cheer for us which is very much appreciated!

On Friday night as part of our team meetings we talked about with both the men's and the women's teams that if teams were going to be in front of us, we wanted to make them earn it, and that's something we did really well today.

Sophomore Mike Verde and senior Nolan Vest had tremendous runs for us today, and certainly deserve recognition for what they did!  While we didn't have every guy on the team have a great race today, it wasn't for a lack of effort and dedication. It was great to see our team move up a spot in the team standings, and when looking at how young our team is overall there's a lot to be encouraged about for our future.

The women raced great, which makes the third-place finish frustrating especially after the runner-up finish last year, but we have to hand it to New Paltz for their effort today.  There can be an advantage in hosting, and the New Paltz team certainly capitalized on that opportunity today, and that's to their credit.  We're proud of our effort, and are excited about the direction we are taking.

There's a huge number of positive results that happened today; one of the strongest indicators for our women is that our 7th runner today was ahead of the 2nd runner for the teams behind us; of course having three All-Conference runners (junior Sam Himes, sophomore Sydney Smith, and freshman McKenzie Dombroski) is a great measure of the positive progress the program is moving in.

Half of the squad that ran today starts indoor on Monday after a week-deserved day off tomorrow; cross country season continues for our top runners in two weeks at the Atlantic Regional Championships in Canton NY hosted by St. Lawrence University.