ONEONTA and ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's cross country team finished second out of five schools at the Oneonta Airfield Invitational at Fortin Park.
 
The Red Dragons posted a score of 39 points, trailing only host Oneonta (17). Word of Life (93), Hartwick (120) and Sage (127) completed the field.
 
Vincent Smaldone (Red Hook) was Cortland's top performer in fifth place out of 51 runners in 20 minutes, 48.6 seconds over 6,000 meters. Jonthomas Bierman of Oneonta won the race in 19:10.9, more than 46 seconds faster than the runner-up.
 
Adam Schreiber (Williamson) placed sixth in 20:51.1, Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West) was seventh in 21:10.8 and Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) finished eighth in 21:12.8.
 
Rounding out Cortland's top seven were Christian Wissa (Somers) in 11th place (21:14.3), Daniel Patrick (Manlius/Fayetteville-Manlius) in 14th place (21:29.4) and Ronan Pollard (Lindenhurst) in 15th place (21:33.7).
 
Also on Saturday, the Red Dragons sent a handful of runners to a small meet hosted by Cornell and featuring unattached runners from Syracuse. Brandon Mulholland (Syracuse/Westhill) was the top Cortland finisher in 12th place out of 21 runners in 20:52.8 over four miles.

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

This was quite a busy weekend for us!

The bulk of the team that is healthy made the trip over to Oneonta, where we focused on strong team tactics. It was pretty fun to see how far back we were at the 1k, and how much ground we gained over the remainder of the course. During the excitement of a race it is easy to get caught up and get out too fast; today was really well-executed by both teams to be controlled early to allow us to be successful when it counts.

In particular, I'd like to recognize the efforts of Ronan Pollard and Joshua Osae on the men's side and Liv Balfe and Mia Hannan for having a really tough, committed run today!

We also sent a small group of men over the Cornell; it was a last-minute opportunity that we felt helped our team's development in a more effective way for a few men than going to Oneonta was going to do. It's great to have the support of our administration to be able to do something like that, especially on relatively short notice. Both Robert Davidson and Brandon Mulholland had pretty exceptional efforts on the day, and the whole squad that made the short trip gained some valuable experience that will pay off for them later in the season. 

The day closed with the C-Club Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where we got to see one of our program alumni, legendary Coach Bobby Devins gain a well-deserved inclusion.

We're looking forward to having the full-distance races – our first of the season – this upcoming weekend at the University of Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational!