XC cruising along
The starting gun has been fired on the cross country season and both the men’s and women’s teams have had strong starts to the season. The cross country program has historically been one of the most successfull sports Ithaca has had, but our distance runners have received little recognition for their accomplishments.
Both teams competed at the Oswego Invitational on Saturday with the women finishing first of seven teams and the men placed second of seven.
Leading the way on the women’s side was freshman Jenn Randall, finishing first overall. That’s right, a freshman taking the top spot in her first college race. That’s got to feel pretty good.
Six of the top overall finishers were Bombers with the team finishing with 15 points. Second place finisher and Empire 8 rival Alfred University had 69 points. Talk about dominating the field.
On the men’s side, the Blue and Gold were just edged by SUNY-Cortland. The Bombers finished with 35 points while the Red Dragons had 21. The top four finishers in the race were Cortland runners, but places five through nine belonged to the South Hill squad.
Senior Phil Abbott was the top finisher for Ithaca, followed by freshman Nate Bickell.
Because cross country isn’t particularly a strong spectator sport, these teams don’t get the recognition they deserve. Both have been consistently dominant in the conference and in the country, especially the women behind the experienced tutelage of Head Coach Bill Ware.
Keep an eye on these teams, Bomber fans. If there is anyone that could make a run for a national championship this fall it’s these runners. I strongly urge any and all Ithaca fans to support some of the best athletes we have at IC at their first race in Ithaca on Oct. 23 at the Reif Invitational at Cornell.
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