PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Cortland women's cross country team claimed it second straight State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championship and junior Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) repeated as the league's individual champion at the conference championship meet, hosted by Plattsburgh State at Rugar Woods.
 
Cortland won its 18th SUNYAC title overall with a score of 49 points, 30 better than Oneonta (79). Oswego finished third with 114 points, just ahead of Delhi, Plattsburgh and New Paltz, each with 116 points. Rounding out the team standings were Cobleskill (190), Morrisville (214), Buffalo State (217) and Fredonia (243). Potsdam and Canton did not field complete teams.
 
Innocent is the fourth Cortland woman to win consecutive SUNYAC cross country titles and the first in 28 years. The previous three were Barbara Schmitt (1986-87), Michelle LaFleur (1992-94) and Cindy Lauzon (1996-97). Last year she won the championship race by more than 21 seconds, but this season was a different story. She was second after 2,650 meters in the 6,000-meter race, but she led by more than five seconds with 600 meters remaining. Oswego's Hannah Reichard made a late charge, but Innocent was able to hold on and officially win by a tenth of a second, finishing in 21 minutes, 40.8 seconds to Reichard's 21:40.9 time.
 
Innocent was one of four Red Dragons to earn All-SUNYAC honors with top-15 finishes in a field of 92 runners. Senior Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) and junior Jewel Jones (Long Beach) hit the finish line at basically the same time - Wolcott finished eighth in 22:44.3 and Jones was ninth in 22:44.7. Sophomore Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) placed 12th in 22:55.4. The top five finishers are named to the All-SUNYAC first team, spots 6-10 are second team and 11-15 are third team.
 
Wolcott and Jones were in a virtual tie for 13th place at 2,650 meters, remained together in basically a tie for eighth place with 600 meters left, and stayed in those spots at the end. Peer was 19th at the 2,650-meter mark and 13th with 600 meters left before moving up to 12th place.
 
Six other Cortland runners finished in the top 40. Firstyear Gwenivere Connelly (Port Jefferson/Earl L. Vandermeulen) placed 19th (23:56.6), sophomore Bri Ostheller (Penfield) was 21st (24:02.9) and junior Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) finished 24th (24:24.2). Firstyear MaryJane Politi (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) hit the finish line in 26th place (24:40.9), firstyear Cassidy Wendt (Seaford) placed 33rd (25:02.5) and sophomore Kelly Newman (Harrison) was 37th (25:20.2).
 
Peer was one of three people at the meet recognized as a SUNYAC Elite 20 Award. The award goes to the student-athlete at the SUNYAC finals site with the highest overall GPA. The sophomore inclusive childhood education major has a 4.0 GPA.
 
Cortland will compete at the NCAA Division III Niagara Region Championships Nov. 15 at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester.

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

This weekend was a bit of a wild ride!
 
Distance running can be considered as a challenge of toughness. And it's not the type of toughness that stands in the paint and takes a charge (to mix sports metaphors), it's the type of toughness that refuses to quit. It's a very quiet toughness. Resilience might be a much more appropriate word to use!
 
And this weekend tested the team's resilience! We unfortunately had some mechanical issues on our trip up to Plattsburgh on Friday, leading to a couple of hours of sitting on the bus – first on the side of the highway, and later in a bus garage while a mechanic worked on resolving the issue. This of course changed our dinner plans pretty significantly – and the restaurant that was great about working with us was staffed at a much lower level by the time we arrived. This further delayed our arrival to the hotel – but don't worry, we still got there on Friday night! It was still Halloween, and we were treated to Halloween goody bags by parents who had staying in the lobby awaiting our arrival – which was great after the 'tricks' played on us by the trip. By the time we finished checking in and got in our rooms sadly Halloween had ended, and November had begun.
 
As great as the performances were on Saturday – one of the strongest team performances we have had in a long time – the resilience the team showed through the weekend was great! We couldn't be prouder for how the squad handled the challenge and frustration. It would have been easy to make this into a negative situation, to start complaining, to focus on the 'unfairness' and 'how this was going to hurt us.' It would have been human! But it didn't happen. The team stayed in great spirits, with an impromptu off-key karaoke party breaking out while parked in the bus garage. Life isn't always fair, and a lot of things happen out of our control. The team kept perspective, stayed positive, and made the best of it. That's resilience!
 
Great thanks should go out to our senior associate director of athletics, Tom Cranfield, for working the phones on Friday to help us get accommodated, to Stephen Hale of Hale Transportation for offering up his garage and mechanics to a rival company to get us back on the road, and to the Olive Garden in Queensbury, NY, for feeding us heartily after we showed up over two hours late!
 
The efforts on Saturday were outstanding! For the men's race, three all-conference selections to go along with the team title don't tell the whole story. In a smaller race like this, depth doesn't always matter the way it will in a bigger race, but I think it's pretty telling that on a cold and very windy day – where the course was a bit slow from the rain that had come through – we put 12 guys under 28 minutes, with the 13th just a few ticks slower. Our fifth through twelfth guys came in only 17 seconds apart: if you blinked, you probably missed somebody finishing! Using the 28-minute mark as a guide, it's pretty telling that our twelfth man was ahead of the fifth man of every over team in the race, ahead of the fourth man of nine of the other eleven, and would have been the lead runner for four teams in the conference – and was only slightly behind the top runner of a fifth! It's great to see the tangible evidence of how deep we are getting the program!
 
For the women's race, this team ran so well that they made other programs take notice. We pride ourselves on running smart from the gun, but had good control of the race already at around 1.5 miles. From there to the finish, the team turned up the pressure and made strong moves forward. Having four ladies make the all-conference team is of course fantastic – as is Phoebe Peer earning the Elite 20 award for academics, sharing the award with two other ladies, all of whom have a perfect 4.0 GPA! The fact that we could have been missing any of our top five scores and still won comfortably is a great testament to this team!
 
We have two weeks until the NCAA Regional at Genesee Valley Park – we're excited to continue our progress!
 
On a closing note, I followed the results of Cortland Men's Hockey closely on Friday night (yay for the 8-1 win), as it was the team's annual #stopsuicide game in conjunction with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP: follow this link for more information: https://www.cortlandreddragons.com/news/2025/10/8/mens-ice-hockey-charity-game-jersey-auction-oct-31-supporting-suicide-prevention-organization.aspx). We feel honored to help with this effort; four members of our program helped with the 50-50 raffle before and during the game, and I appreciate their time to support a great cause!