GENESEO, N.Y. – Ryan Cory (Beacon) and Mike Verde (Hopewell Junction/Arlington) finished in the top 40 in a field of more than 400 runners to lead Cortland's performances at Geneseo's Mike Woods Men's Cross Country Invitational. Their efforts helped the Red Dragons place 11th out of 33 teams in the final standings.
 
Cortland posted a team score of 358 points, barely edging out SUNYAC foes Oneonta (359) and Brockport (363). Geneseo claimed the team title with 32 points, followed by Middlebury (78) and Otterbein (91).
 
Cory finished 31st out of 404 competitors with a time of 25 minutes, 48.7 seconds over 8,000 meters, while Verde was 37th in 26:00.3. Ezra Ruggles of Geneseo was the individual champion in 24:10.3. The course at the National Warplane Museum will be the site of the NCAA Division III Region 3 Championships in mid-November.
 
Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) turned in a 96th-place finish in 26:56.5, while Gavin Watkins (Endicott/Owego Free Academy) was 130th (27:31.4) and Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) was 139th (27:43.6). Rounding out the top eight for the Red Dragons were Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) (158th, 27:57.6), Ben Fenton (Horseheads) (168th, 28:05.2) and Brandon Mancroni (Rock Hill/Monticello) (171st, 28:06.7), while David Soto (Warwick/Warwick Valley) also placed in the top half of the field (189th, 28:23.7).
 
Cortland heads to Houghton College next Saturday for the Houghton Highlander Invitational.

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

We're very thankful that we had the chance to get on the regional championships course – while it is somewhat simple, learning how to run it – as well as to scout out the way most of the region will run it – was pretty important. While we didn't have the team result for either squad that we were hoping for, we also had a number of good performances, and are confident that we have learned some good things to apply moving forward.
 
Obviously Vanessa Burkard had a very strong day leading the Lady Red Dragons – her last 200 meters was run at under 6 minute per mile pace, which is quite impressive, and really bodes well as we look forward to the championship season. It certainly puts in her in a good position to compete at the conference and regional meets! Marlee Angus and Devin Reilly did a great job of working together, and overall had a strong effort. They both needed to step up today as we were missing some of our 'usual' top five, and we're quite pleased with the effort they showed! The staff is also pretty happy with how receptive they are to working to improve, even after a good day.  It's a good sign that nearly the entire team had 6k personal bests today (if I'm correct, Vanessa, Rachel Castello, Khalifah Tracey, Marlee, Devin, Kayla Pucci, Deirdre Sullivan, and Hannah Johansen all had PBs for the distance), even on a hot day after a hard week of training.
 
In the men's race, it was a lot of run to watch Ryan (Cory) and Mike (Verde) move up through the field. I had them at about 160th at the 2k mark, so they passed around 125 people over the next 6k. Both of those guys made a pretty amazing step forward today! Cam Szabo had a nice effort to break the 27-minute barrier; Clayton Santiago did a great job leading his group through the 6k mark, and then really crushed the last loop on the course to sneak under 28 minutes. Firstyear Ben Fenton and senior David Soto both showed a really nice progression through the race, with each 2000-meter loop being faster than the previous one! That's a good way to work on being tough, and it's fun to fly by people at the end who had gone out too fast!
 
We're looking forward to the trip to Houghton next weekend to compete at the Highlander Invitational; personally I'm excited about our Alumni Program Update happening this Thursday evening via Zoom – you can find information and register to attend here: Cross Country/Track and Field Program Update