CLINTON, N.Y. – Cortland finished in third place out of seven schools at the Hamilton College Men's Cross Country Invitational. 
 
The Red Dragons finished with 80 points. Hamilton won the title with 19 and Clarkson was runner-up with 55. 
 
Gavin Watkins (Endicott/Owego Free Academy) was Cortland's top finisher in 12th place out of 77 runners in 27 minutes, 55.5 seconds over 8,000 meters. Hamilton's John Quinn won the race in 26:25.5. 
 
Three other Red Dragons earned top-20 finishes. Paul Tommolino (Stony Brook/Ward Melville) placed 14th in 28:07.3, Jack Bisbee (Deer Park/Half Hollow Hills West) was 18th in 28:40.6 and Kevin Moser (Camillus/West Genesee) ended 19th in 28:40.8. 
 
In addition, Eric DeHart (Apalachin/Vestal) and Joshua Osae (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) finished 32nd and 33rd, respectively. DeHart crossed the line in 29:21.2 and Osae was clocked at 29:30.5.

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

This was quite an exciting week for us! While we focused on training for most of the folks who ran at Paul Short (and who we expect to run at Rowan next weekend), we're quite proud of the efforts and competitiveness that the team showed today.
 
The Hamilton course is fun, but challenging under the best of conditions – and while the temperature was pretty nice and the rain light during the races today, the rain that had come through last night created some muddy and slippery conditions, which makes a tougher course like Hamilton's into a grind. The teams responded quite well, as folks stayed focused and committed to racing more than focusing on the fact that it was going to be a bit slow and challenging.
 
In the women's race, highlights would be Deirdre Sullivan leading the team not only in performance but also making sure that things were being done correctly by the team today, Kristin Ieva running a very tough race getting faster each mile (one of the few athletes to do that today), and newcomer Sarah Kiefer running a very strong race! For the men, Gavin Watkins had one of the strongest races of his career, but I'd like to point out how strong the efforts by Kevin Moser, Joshua Osae, Eric DeHart, and Anthony Cawley were as all ran quite well to hit new PRs on a challenging day.
 
We're excited for the opportunity to travel to Rowan for some out-of-region competition this upcoming weekend!