ONEONTA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's cross country team opened its 2026 season with a second-place finish out of six schools at the Oneonta Airfield Invitational.
 
Cortland finished with a team score of 44 points, Oneonta won the title with 21 points, with Morrisville in third (87), Delhi in fourth (93), Cobleskill in fifth (156) and Mansfield in sixth (157). The race was held at the site of this November's SUNYAC championships.
 
Landon Fracasse (New Paltz) was Cortland's top finisher with a sixth-place time of 20 minutes, 10.8 seconds over a 6,000-meter course. A total of 73 runners competed. Oneonta's Alexander Kunz was the individual champion in 19:57.4.
 
A total of 13 Cortland runners placed in the top 20. In addition to Fracasse's sixth-place finish, Carter Naginey (Groton) finished seventh (20:13.4), Vincent Smaldone (Red Hook) was ninth (20:25.2) and Declan Butler (Yonkers/Archbishop Stepinac) was 10th (20:27.2).
 
The Red Dragons' other top-20 finishers were: Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West) (12th, 20:35.5), Nicholas Doran (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury) (13th, 20:40.8), Daniel Dunn (Oswego) (14th, 20:42.9), Jon Slick (Beekmantown) (15th, 20:45.6), Christian Wissa (Somers) (16th, 20:48.2), Kyle Fridel (Irondequoit) (17th, 20:49.7), Mason Brozowski (Selkirk/Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk) (18th, 20:53.0), Sawyer Sweet (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) (19th, 20:53.7), and Anthony Rizzo (Rochester/Irondequoit) (20th, 20:54.9).
 
Cortland returns to action on Friday, Sept. 11, at the Cornell University Opener.

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

My apologies on the delay on the first one of the year!

Both the Women and Men's squad went into the meet with a clear operational goal to pack run and emphasize a controlled close. We certainly saw some impressive turnovers, and we're excited to see our depth continue to pay off!

On the Women's side, there's always a value in earning a win - especially with such close work done with teammates pulling each other along!

On the Men's side, a big middle pack really stood out amongst the field - fantastic early practice for them as the Conference meet can get spaced out, so the whole team has to know how to create their own work!

My final favorite thought with these early meets is not only about how good it is to see the team back in action – but that we get to send Returners back to work with First-Years. This is extra helpful as they reasonably have first collegiate-race jitters! This welcoming attitude amongst the team adds to the reward for the group!

We'll be headed to Cornell for another Friday night meet this week, for a fun match up with our good friends in Ithaca!