ITHACA, N.Y. – RJ Davis (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse), Rob Davidson (Setauket/Ward Melville) and Jed Swayze (Preble/Homer) each finished in the top half of the field to lead Cortland at the Cornell University John Reif Memorial Men's Cross Country Invitational. Cortland did not have any competitors in the women's race.
 
Davis placed 18th overall, and was the 12th collegiate finisher, in the 42-runner field with a time of 16 minutes, 57.3 seconds on Cornell's 5,000-meter Moakley Course. Davidson finished in 20th place in 17:07.8 and Swayze was 21st in 17:20.0.
 
Sam Lawler, an unattached runner from Syracuse University, won the race in 15:07.1, followed by Syracuse's Nathan Lawler in 15:09.0. The non-team scoring event featured runners from Syracuse, Cornell, Cortland and Ithaca, along with unattached and Cornell alumni competitors.
 
Also for the Red Dragons, Adam Schreiber (Williamson) finished 25th (17:33.6), Ben Zinger (Liverpool) placed 26th (17:35.5), Matt Mullen (Mastic/William Floyd) was 26th (17:35.5), Alex Brodmerkel (West Babylon) finished 29th (17:52.2), and Hunter Braun (Victor) crossed the finish line in 31st place (17:59.0).
 
Cortland will host the SUNYAC Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships next Saturday, Oct. 30, at Dwyer Memorial Park in Preble.

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

We're always appreciative of the invitation to head down Route 13 to run at the John Reif Memorial Run. The course is never the fastest, but it is pretty and enjoyable, and there is certainly some good competition that showed up today!
 
By design, we only sent a small squad of men's runners. The women's SUNYAC Championships roster was determined last week, so we are better off training through this week with an eye on the conference championship meet next Saturday. We've moved into a rhythm of racing every other weekend which makes this weekend more suited for training than for racing. For the men, a few spots on the SUNYAC Championships roster weren't set yet, so this became a final opportunity for the guys to show what they have; it also provided the last chance for a few of the men to race until the first indoor track and field meet in early December. Firstyear RJ Davis made a strong move to work the middle of the race, which is a strategy we have been focusing on, and it was great to see it work out for a strong performance! Classmate Rob Davidson should also be commended: we have been emphasizing that he needed to work more closely with his teammates during races, and he did a great job working with RJ!
 
We have the privilege to host the 2021 SUNYAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, October 30th at Dwyer Park in Preble, NY. We're extremely excited to have the opportunity to perform 'at home' and are looking forward to seeing alumni, family, and friends out supporting us.