New Paltz, NY – The SUNY New Paltz Cross Country Program will head to NCAA Mideast Regional Championships hosted by Connecticut College at Harkness Memorial Park in Waterford, CT on Saturday.
The Women's 6k will start at 11a.m. followed by the Men's 8k at noon with the awards ceremony starting at 1:30p.m. near the starting line of the course.
SUNYAC Recap: The men came in fourth at the SUNYAC Championship in Oswego, which has only been achieved once before in 2018. The women finished third out of ten teams for the second time in program history. The women last finished third in 2018 and only scored higher once in 2019 when the team finished second.
Orquidea Briceno finished fifth overall to lead the Hawks in a time of 24:29.6. Briceno earned first team all-SUNYAC selection and immediate induction into the SUNYAC hall of fame by virtue of her top five finish.
Marcella Candlin finished next for the Hawks in sixth place place in a time of 24:32.0 earning second team all-SUNYAC selection by finishing in the top ten.
Lillian Stephenson followed in nineteenth place with a time of 25:26.7.
Hunter Larson and
Crystal Rustami finished in twenty-third and twenty-eighth place(s) places with times of 25:58.4 and 26:23.1 respectively to close out the scoring five for the Hawks.
Mikayla Cecora and
Mackenzie Barcomb finished as the Hawks displacers in thirty-third and thirty-seventh place(s) respectively. The Hawks had six more participants in the race including
Jazmyne Daily-Simpson (fortieth),
Allison English (forty-seventh),
Alexandra Swink (forty- eighth),
Sam Maendel (sixty-second),
Ava Nargentino (sixty-fourth), and
Keira Whitaker (sixty-ninth).
Evan Miller led the men's team with a second-place finish and a time of 26:51.9. Miller earned the silver medal, first team all-SUNYAC selection and immediate induction into the SUNYAC hall of fame. Miller's performance was the best by any man in program history at the SUNYAC championship. Miller topped the previous top individual best of fourth set back in 2014.
Gavin Bowers finished in twelfth place with a time of 27:33.7 and third team all-SUNYAC selection.
Oliver Melara-Perez and
Vincent Mandracchia followed in seventeenth and thirty-first place(s) with time(s) of 27:52.0 and 28:36.9 respectively.
Brandon Gardner rounded out the Hawks' scoring five in thirty-third place with a time of 28:40.9. Aidan Hesseltine and
Joe Palazzolo finished as the Hawks' displacers in forty-fifth and fifty-fourth place(s) respectively.
Anthony Willis was the Hawks eighth runner in the field and recorded a seventy-sixth place finish.
"I am feeling confident in the athletes abilities and looking forward to seeing them perform in one of the toughest regions in D3 cross country. " said Head Coach
Thomas Hartnett when asked about his thoughts heading into the meet this weekend.
Following this weekend of competition 32 teams per gender will be selected for the national championships. 10 on each side will automatically qualify (one per region, from regional championships) while the remaining 22 for each of the men's and women's championships will be picked at large. The National Championships will take place in Terre Haute, Indiana hosted by Rose-Hulman on Saturday, November 23.
The link for live events can be found here.
The link for all tournament information can be found here.
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