PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Cortland men's cross country team finished first out of six schools at the SUNYAC Preview Meet, hosted by SUNY Plattsburgh. The event was held on the same course that will be used for the SUNYAC championship meet in early November.
Cortland finished with a score of 23 points, followed by Oneonta with 55 and Plattsburgh with 73 in the top three.
Brandon Mulholland (Syracuse/Westhill) won the 8,000-meter race in 26 minutes, 51.2 seconds, more than 38 seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher. A total of 61 runners competed.
Carter Naginey (Groton) placed third in 27:35.7, followed by
Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West) in fourth (27:44.9) and
Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) in fifth (27:56.7). Cortland's next nine runners finished in consecutive order between 10th and 18th place. The top part of that group included
Chris Jones (Riverhead) in 10th (28:20.2),
Vincent Smaldone (Red Hook) in 11th (28:48.1),
Christian Wissa (Somers) in 12th (29:00.1) and
Zachary Arria (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) in 13th (29:00.9).
Cortland returns to action next Saturday at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational.
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:
We had a tremendous first 'full-distance' pair of races earlier today!
For both squads we strongly emphasized pack running. For the men it was through 4 miles; for the women it was through 3. The teams executed this plan pretty flawlessly, and it was just beautiful to watch.
We then had very tough efforts over the final mile (for the men) or 1200 meters (for the women). It was great not only in terms of how the teams worked together and chose to be tough when it counted, but also because it provides us with a good benchmark of where we are at and what the next steps are.
Overall a pretty good day, and we were definitely living it up!
We're pleased with efforts across the whole team today, so it is really hard to single anybody out as the 'good dogs' for this week. That's a great position to be in!
Of course we, like most of the greater running community, want to respectfully acknowledge the
passing of the legendary Cortland coach, professor, and researcher Dr. Jack Daniels; we send our support to his wife Nancy (also a former Cortland coach) along with their daughters Audra and Sarah.
