ITHACA, N.Y. - The Cortland men's and women's cross country teams competed at the non-team scoring Cornell University John Reif Memorial Run on Friday afternoon.
 
Leading the Cortland men was Antoine Wheeler (Penn Yan/Penn Yan Academy), who finished in 39th place in 17 minutes, 19.7 seconds over 5,000 meters. The race featured 52 runners, including many from Division I schools Syracuse, Cornell and Colgate along with some unattached runners.
 
Wheeler was one of seven Red Dragons who finished in order from 39th to 45th place. Michael Houser (Averill Park/La Salle Institute) was 40th (17:41.4), followed by Christian Wissa (Somers) in 41st (17:47.0) and Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) in 42nd (17:54.5). Chris Dalton (Howard Beach/Archbishop Molloy) was 43rd (17:55.7), Anthony Cawley (Jamesville/Jamesville-DeWitt) was 44th (17:59.3) and Anthony Rizzo (Rochester/Irondequoit) finished 45th (18:08.3). Ben Gabelman, an unattached runner from Syracuse University, won the race in 14:33.5 and the top official collegiate finisher was Syracuse's Julian Franjieh in fourth place in 14:59.1.
 
Four Red Dragons competed in the women's race. Bri Ostheller (Penfield) placed 17th in 20 minutes, 40.3 seconds over 5,000 meters. The field included runners from Syracuse and Cornell and unattached runners. Syracuse's Justus Holden-Betts won the race in 17:48.1.
 
Kristin Ieva (North Babylon) finished in 18th place in 20:51.5, followed by Emma Trefzger (Horseheads) in 19th (21:44.0) and Aliesha Howard (Marathon) in 20th (22:41.8).
 
Cortland returns to action on Saturday, November 2, at the SUNYAC Championships in Oswego.

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Assistant Coach Chad Dunham:

We always appreciate the opportunity Cornell gives us this weekend to get another meet in. For us it always serves as a nice last chance meet for some of our folks and helps solidify our conference meet roster.

A special shoutout to a number of folks that came back after working through adversity. Especially Aliesha Howard and Emma Trefzger, getting to line up after some time out after injury. It was fantastic to see a strong effort out of Firstyears Bri Ostheller and Michael Houser despite coming off sickness and even still not feeling 100%! Kristin Ieva as well had a strong performance also showing a great close over the final 1.1 miles, as well did first year men Chris Dalton and Antoine Wheeler!

Across the board we had a solid day; while some folks will transition to track after spending time this Fall laying a strong foundation, for the rest it is onto the SUNYAC Championships next weekend at Oswego!