Geneseo, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz men's and women's cross country teams raced at the 40th annual SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational Saturday, placing 20th and 15th among 33 and 29 teams, respectively.

The hosting Knights dominated both the men's 8K and women's 6K races with scores of 32 and 27, respectively; the latter's 91 points were better than second place Case Western. SUNY New Paltz scored 520 in the men's 8K, five points better than Suffolk, to place 20th overall and fifth among seven SUNYAC members. The Hawks placed 15th on the women's side with a score of 439, a score directly behind SUNYAC rival Cortland's 393, but ahead of the four other SUNYAC members (Oneonta, Buffalo State, Oswego, and Fredonia) in the race.

Considering the large amount of competition in a fast race, SUNY New Paltz coach Aislinn Ryan was proud of their team's performance.

"The races went out outrageously fast, everyone went out a little bit faster themselves," Ryan said. "We had many personal records on our team as well as people trying to stick together and help each other through the race. This is where we need to be at this time in the season, so I'm really happy about that." 

For the fifth straight race, senior Jake Meyers crossed the finish line first — and 29th overall — for SUNY New Paltz with a time of 25 minutes, 46.1 seconds. He crossed just three tenths of a second ahead of Middlebury's Alec Gironda, and sixth tenths behind Geneseo's Tyler Senall in a tight finish. Graduate student Colin Battersby (26:44) and senior Trey Hotaling (26:50) finished 80th and 87th overall, respectively, while freshman Vincent Mandraccia (29:21.5) and senior Chris D'Antonio (30:06.3) crossed at 251st and 295th, respectively, to round out the scoring five. The SUNY New Paltz top three was pivotal to finishing ahead of Suffolk, who had Matyas Csiki-Fejer place second overall, but no other finisher better than 99th. Freshman Luke Hoyt (30:07.2) finished just behind D'Antonio to narrowly miss scoring for the Hawks for a second consecutive week.

Juniors Brian Casey and Carlos Vasquez were out on the men's side due to injury, but Ryan said they are both "doing better" and are probable for the team's next race in Milton.

In the women's 6K, senior Clara Flores-Reininger finished first for the Hawks at 17th overall with a time of 23 minutes, 0.7 seconds. Junior Kate Cochran finished second for SUNY New Paltz and 28th overall with her best time of the 6K season at 23 minutes, 27.7 seconds. For the second race in a row, freshman Marcella Candlin had a personal best time of 25 minutes, 13.2 seconds to place third for the Hawks — 123rd overall. Sophomore Ginny Clifford (26:31.6) and freshman Allison English (27:32.4) completed the scoring five for SUNY New Paltz with 199th and 239th overall finishes, respectively.

"Jake, Kate, and Clara had races that I honestly couldn't have asked to be any better at this point in the season," Ryan said. "What other teams don't know is that we haven't started doing the work that's going to give them the extra edge as we get closer to those championship races, and we're going to be starting that this week."

SUNY New Paltz is back in action next Saturday for its penultimate regular season meet — the Mount Saint Mary's College Invitational — back at their "home", the Hudson Valley Sports Complex. The women's 6K begins at 11 a.m while the men's 8K follows at 12 p.m.

To view the full results from the 2021 Mike Woods Invitational, click here.

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