New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz cross country team is set to run in the New Paltz Invitational, its first and only home meet of the season, Friday.
While the Hawks will participate in another meet at the Hudson Valley Sports Complex later this season — the Mt. Saint Mary's College Invitational — Friday's invite is the only meet SUNY New Paltz is designated to host in 2021. It is just the fourth time since the 2015 season the Hawks hosted a meet; they held the New Paltz Invite, where they placed first, and hosted the SUNYAC Championships at the complex in 2019.
Many of the student-athletes are excited to run in front of their home crowd, while noting the importance of performing well in Milton.
"Out of anyone, it's most important to show the coaches and your family and friends who come to visit and other [New Paltz] students how good you've been working, and hopefully show them that we have been working really hard," said SUNY New Paltz senior Clara Flores-Reininger.
"We have to represent New Paltz at our home course, and with family and friends coming, I think it's even more important to really do the best that we can and show that we've been working really hard to get where we are today," added Hawks graduate student Colin Battersby.
Along with SUNY New Paltz and the Knights, Pace University and Brooklyn College are expected to run in both the men's 8K and women's 6K races, while Vassar, Queensborough Community College, and SUNY Ulster are only expected to run in the men's 8K. The meet will also be senior day for the program, where it will honor seniors Jake Meyers, Chris D'Antonio and graduate students Battersby, Phil Akhmadi and Reed Williams.
The Hawks enter the New Paltz Invitational following their opening two races at Vassar College, where they competed in the 4K and 3K Vassar Season Starter, then the 6K and 5K Ron Stonitsch Invitational last Friday in Poughkeepsie. SUNY New Paltz did well at the Brewers' farm, earning a pair of second place team finishes at the Season Starter, while placing fifth and fourth in the men's 6K and women's 5K races, respectively. It has also seen impressive performances from their freshmen and sophomores, especially on a women's team where the only student-athlete who had ran a competitive Division III race prior to this season was Flores-Reininger. 
However, the home meet will likely be one of its most difficult of the season. It is the first 8K and 6K races for the men and women, respectively, for the season, and there is a slight chance of rain in the forecast Friday. Those factors will combine with a course that has proven to be very difficult to run on.
"It's going to be hard effort at a course that is very challenging, even though it's our own course. It's mostly on grass and that's one of the challenging parts of Cross Country," said Hawks coach Aislinn Ryan, adding that running on grass compared to other surfaces is an "energy suck."
"That's the thing that is fun about cross country, that there's all these challenges that you have to face, and whoever faces them the best is the one who wins," they said. "It's going to help us later on and to have this hard effort at our home course and give us a little bit of confidence as well."
Junior Kate Cochran, in her first Division III season, has led the pace for the women, placing second in the Vassar Starter and fifth in the Ron Stonitsch Invitational. Senior captain Jake Meyers, who has also stated his goals to earn a spot in the national championship, took fifth and 13th in the Vassar events, respectively, to lead the men's side.
"Kate's done a lot of waiting to get to this point," Ryan said. "She's not going to waste a race, which is kind of great to be at that point. As far as her development, she's just looking forward and looking at the people who came in front of her today. I think it's motivation for her goal to make nationals."
The New Paltz Invitational is scheduled to begin on Friday with the men's race at 4 p.m., followed by the women's race at 5 p.m.
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