Following a difficult yet promising 2023 season, the Ithaca College men’s cross-country team aims to shock the Liberty League this season. Last year, the Bombers team — which lost five seniors from the 2022 season — finished sixth overall in the Liberty League Championship, their lowest-ever finish in a conference tournament.
Junior Adam Mocho, who broke out as a consistent top-seven finisher last season, broke the situation down further and said the previous season’s underclassmen will have the chance to grow into bigger roles.
“So we were, at least in my freshman year, a top-heavy team, and then going into last year we were a young team,” Mocho said. “Now, moving into this year, that young team is molding into the heart and core of the team.”
These sentiments were echoed by graduate student Christopher Licata, who said the team’s returning squad would be a catalyst for improvement.
“I mean, all the guys know each other for the most part,” Licata said. “We had one senior last year, so we’ve been together basically through it all. Pat[rick Bierach], who was that senior last year, had come back for a fifth year with COVID eligibility. So, we have a great idea of the guys coming in.”
A big part of that returning squad is senior James Hughes, who ran the fifth-fastest 8k in program history at 24:56. His time was good enough to finish 16th at NCAA Regionals, just shy of an at-large bid to the National Championship. The Bombers finished eighth at Regionals, a two-place improvement over the previous season.
Mocho said he is looking forward to seeing Hughes and the squad’s other top-five runners make an impact on the team’s underclassmen.
“I think that watching guys like him and guys like [senior captain Drew Taylor] and [junior Ben Buffone] and Pat Bierach, who were that core of that top five last year, just continue to lead us,” Mocho said. “I think they did a good job of setting the precedent on how to work hard and how to attack races. So, following in their footsteps and just really going after our goals is key.”
With just one outgoing runner — sophomore Trevor Dix, who transferred to the University of Oregon — and five incoming first-year runners, the Bombers are looking toward stability as one of their greatest strengths.
That same emphasis on consistency is what Mocho said has helped him prepare for the upcoming season.
“It’s just daily mileage with a workout day here and there, with a little bit more intensity,” Mocho said. “I was averaging like 70 miles a week … just staying consistent with it because that’s really what’s going to help me specifically be ready to go when we get here and ramp up intensity and focus more on really honing in on certain paces and being ready to go for races.”
However, while the Bombers’ roster of runners has remained consistent from the previous season, the coaching staff has not. Jim Nichols, long-time men’s cross-country head coach, announced his retirement in June. Nichols coached the team for 32 seasons, which included 10 conference championships and six NCAA Championship appearances. The college did not have to look far to fill the void Nichols left when women’s cross-country head coach Erin Dinan stepped up to assume duties as the men’s coach.
Dinan said the increased workload of coaching both teams presented a new challenge for her, but one that she had no problem facing head-on.
“It’ll be more people that I’ll be interacting with because I like to [have those] individual interactions. But the practices are the same in terms of like, [both teams] practice at the same time and travel to the same meets,” Dinan said. “So yes, there’s more bodies, but I’m not doing anything different than what I have always done, we just adapt. I’ve always adapted training to the athletes that I have, so it’s just getting to know more people, which is something that I actually really love.”
Dinan’s one-on-one style of interactions has helped win over the locker room, as Licata expressed his support for Dinan.
“I definitely think there’s room for improvement for us on the men’s side and having coach Dinan, who has had a bunch of success, will be a really welcome change to the culture here,” Licata said. “I think that once we have that set and everyone can kind of buy into what the coaches are doing and where we want to be in the future, we can achieve really great things as a program here on campus.”
Mocho said Dinan’s success with the women’s team should help close any gaps on the men’s team and that the men’s team will benefit from working with her.
“Coach Dinan’s done a great job with the women’s program,” Mocho said. “And I don’t think anything’s going to change. I think we all have full confidence that she’ll be able to help us with our goals.”
The expectations for this year’s Bombers seem to be low across the Liberty League, something Mocho said would not be the case if other teams saw how much progress the Bombers are making behind the scenes.
“I think that we want to go after some stuff this year and I don’t think anyone’s really counting on us to do a ton,” said Mocho. “But I think that we know what we have here. We know the group of guys. We know our locker room. We know the caliber of people we have and that’s what we’re going to rely on.”
The team began the season with the annual Jannette Bonrouhi-Zakaim Memorial Alumni Run on Aug. 31. The team’s first official meet will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 7 at SUNY Brockport.
