ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Cortland finished in 11th place out of 27 schools at the NCAA Division III Niagara Region (Region 3) Men's Cross Country Championships, hosted by RIT at Genesee Valley Park.
 
Cortland finished with 302 points. Geneseo won the team title with 29 points, followed by NYU with 47 points. Geneseo earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Championships by winning the regional. Other regional team finishers are eligible for at-large selections, and the top seven runners not on teams chosen for nationals qualify for the championship individually.
 
Brandon Mulholland (Syracuse/Westhill) was Cortland's top finisher in 39th place out of 189 runners in 26 minutes, 24.0 seconds over 8,000 meters. He barely missed earning all-region honors, which go to the top 35 finishers. Mulholland worked his way up from 60th place after 1,000 meters to 40th at the 6K mark and 36th at the 7K mark before finishing 39th. Geneseo's Ryan Hagan won the race in 24:11.7.
 
Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West) finished 43rd in 26:35.3 and Vincent Smaldone (Red Hook) was 67th in 27:02.3. Cartner Naginey (Groton) placed 74th (27:12.6), Landon Fracasse (New Paltz) was 80th (27:22.3), Kyle Friedel (Irondequoit) finished 94th (27:28.0) and Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) was 100th (27:50.7).

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

Quite a day for us – we're very proud of the efforts both squads brought today! Even though this meet is our smallest roster of the year (with a limit of seven per race), we have to feel good about everybody that raced today. The Red Dragons were out smart, raced tough, moved up, and fought through the end! We're also thankful to have had a ton of support from family, friends, teammates, and alumni that showed up today!

We were fortunate to have split mats at every 1000 meters during the race; the men's team decreased their score at each checkpoint. That's pretty remarkable to do! That's good tangible evidence of the squad fighting for every point and fighting to take every second off of their times. While not every guy is feeling as positive as I am about the race, that's another thing that the coaches view as a positive – it means we aren't satisfied with just 'going out there' and are looking to continue to improve! In particular, I'd like to point out firstyear Landon Fracasse, who is now #4 on our all-time list for this course, and senior Brandon Mulholland, who put everything he had into the race today – I'm confident in calling it the best race of his career!
 
It was a very similar story with the women's team – they pushed so hard that they were in 3rd as a team at the 5k mark, and just got nosed out for that spot over the final 1000 meters. That's OK – I couldn't be prouder of their effort! From the 1k to the finish, our scoring 5 moved past 120 places – most of it from our #2 - #5, as Melissa was up front the whole time. Obviously Melissa's race was great – and seemed very smooth from outside the lines – besides being a guaranteed qualifier for next Saturday's NCAA Championships, she set our record for that course; senior Alexa Wolcott moved into our all-time top-ten list while earning all-regional honors, and firstyear Gwen Connelly earned a spot in the rookie all-time top ten! The 4th place team finish is especially nice in that it not only provides a concrete benchmark of the quality strides the program has made, but also because it helps contribute valuable points for the National Directors' Cup.
 
As this was our last full team competition, I'd like to make special acknowledgment of our seniors – not just Brandon and Alexa, but also Anthony Cawley and 'Coach' Josh Osae, for the time, effort, dedication, and leadership they have provided. All four will definitely be missed next fall!
 
Most of the squad is making the move to indoor track and field (there's a meet coming up in just 3 weeks!), but of course we're excited for Melissa's return to the NCAA Cross Country Championships this upcoming Saturday!