New Paltz, NY — After two weeks of preparation, the State University of New York at New Paltz cross country team will head to Cortland to start its postseason in the SUNYAC Championships Saturday.

SUNY New Paltz coach Aislinn Ryan's cross country team has endured numerous challenges in its first competitive season since 2019, including the continued presence of COVID-19, injuries that have paused or ended individual seasons, and a non-COVID related illness that has affected the team for the last three weeks.

Still, even through those struggles, the team is ready and prepared for its biggest challenge of the season to date this weekend.

"I'm hoping that we can all run extremely well," said Hawks senior Chris D'Antonio. "Fast, hard, the hardest we've done before, and I'm hoping as a team we can keep and maintain our record from last time and also maybe beyond that."

"Cross Country is an extremely mentally demanding sport," Ryan added. "It can feel very solitary in a race. Since there are no time outs, being mentally prepared for many different scenarios and knowing how you want to respond to them is crucial. My expectations for Saturday is that every Hawk keeps their goal in the forefront of their mind the entire race and doesn't let it go.

"I want to see what happens with this team's result when not one person relents." 

The championships will take place at Dwyer Memorial Park in Preble, NY, eight miles away from SUNY Cortland's campus. It is the Red Dragons first time hosting the meet since 2009, the last time the Hawks competed at a Cortland-hosted event. In the last SUNYAC championships in 2019, hosted by SUNY New Paltz at the Hudson Valley Sportsdome, the program placed fifth in the men's 8K and had its best result in program history in the women's 6K with a second place finish. They will face the other nine SUNYAC teams in the races, including a SUNY Geneseo program that has won 17 of 18 championships since 2011 — only losing the men's 8K race to Cortland in 2013.

While Ryan doesn't expect a team win on Saturday — the highly regarded Knights program finished no lower than fourth in its regular season meets — they still have good-sized expectations for individual runners on their team.

"This won't be the year we will win SUNYACs, but it doesn't mean that what we do can't be a win for us," Ryan said. "Shooting for personal records is always a good goal. Placement goals can be hard [to assess] because it is dependent upon 10 other teams where we can't accurately predict what their runners will do. My highest goals for the day are individually focused."

As a team, SUNY New Paltz will head into the championships on a two-week rest; it last faced competitive action in the Connecticut College Invitational on Oct. 16. In the the men's and women's blue races, it placed 17th and 19th with scores of 538 and 532, respectively, and finished ahead of Oneonta, the only SUNYAC competition in the race. In the Mike Woods Invitational, its only regular season meet racing alongside numerous SUNYAC rivals, it finished fifth and fourth in the men's and women's race among them, respectively.

Individually, senior Jake Meyers (25:52.6) placed 37th overall and set a personal best at the Waterford course, while senior Trey Hotaling (26:42.8) and graduate student Colin Battersby (27:46.1) finished 80th and 115th, respectively. In the Caroline Grape '22 Memorial Blue Race, junior Kate Cochran (23:20.1) finished 42nd overall and set a personal best overall, while Flores-Reininger (23:37) wasn't too far behind in 52nd place.
 

Throughout the season, Meyers has paced as SUNY New Paltz's best runner, scoring first for the men's side in all seven races, including a win in the New Paltz Invite. On the women's side, Cochran was the Hawks' top runner four times, while Flores-Reininger placed first thrice, including wins at the New Paltz and Mount Saint Mary College Invite at the Hudson Valley Sportsdome.

For some seniors, it will be the final SUNYAC Championship meet of their collegiate careers, albeit the decision to use a waiver for another season of eligibility in 2022 looms.

"This is the meet where I give everything I got, if it's my last one," D'Antonio said. "I put everything on the table and hopefully I can succeed to the best I want and where I hope I can be as well."

After the races, there will be a SUNYAC Championships award ceremony, where, alongside presentation of the trophy to the winner, the All-SUNYAC honorees and Hall of Fame inductees will be announced.

"It would be a huge accomplishment for Jake to make First-Team All-SUNYAC…[and] for both Kate and Clara to make the second team All-SUNYAC," said Ryan, who was named the Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2019, of potential awards for their team. 

Ryan also hopes to see good results from the remainder of their top sevens, including top-30 finishes for both Hotaling and Battersby, and a top-50 placement for freshman Marcella Candlin.

"It's been tough, but I'm proud about where I am and everyone else as a team, especially with everything going on," D'Antonio said.

The SUNYAC Championships are scheduled to begin Saturday with the men's 8K at 11 a.m., while the women's race will begin at noon. The awards ceremony will follow at 1:30 p.m.

To read the offiical SUNYAC Championship press release, click here.

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