For the first time in four years, the Hawks cross country team hosted their own home meet with Mount Saint Mary’s College, State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego, SUNY Maritime and a Hawks cross country alumni team in attendance.
The women’s team competed in the 6K, with impressive performances from each runner. First to finish was third-year runner, Cassandra Williams with a fierce time of 24 minutes and 24.2 seconds, and teammate fourth year Emily Cavanagh on her heels with a close second time of 24:28.2.
“I am optimistic and excited by the start of my season. We have a really good group of girls this year and I’m excited to see what we do,” Williams said. “I am looking forward to feeling strong and continuing to improve throughout the upcoming races.”
A little less than 10 seconds off the pace, Hawks second-year Clara Flores-Reininger finished third with a time of 24:37.8, making the top three women runners for the day exclusively from the Hawks. Fourth-year Vanessa Morgan finished fifth with a time of 25:19.2, extending the Hawks’ lead over their opponents. Runners third-year Riley Loughlin, first-year Ripley Insalaco, and first-year transfer Kylee Kresge also put in some impressive times, finishing seventh through ninth, respectively.
The women’s cross country team was victorious with 18 points, followed by SUNY Oswego (54) and Mount Saint Mary’s College (68).
Next up was the men’s cross country team competing in the 8K. The men’s team was led by fourth-year runner Matt Whitworth, who finished second with a time of 26:59.9. Second-year Conor Van Riper was next to finish in third, earning a time of 27:23.7 and second-year Jake Meyers ran in eighth with a time of 28:31.9. Third-year Colin Battersby and first-year Ryan Carrick finished 11th and 14th respectively, finishing out the men’s scoring for the day.
With two of their runners missing, fourth-year Jack Wilson and second-year Chris D’Antonio, the men’s cross country team fell short, coming in second to the Hawks’ alumni team.
“Saturday’s race was a bit disappointing because we lost the meet by one point,” Whitworth said. “If I had placed one spot higher we would’ve won the race, but I lost to a really talented runner and gave it my all so I can’t beat myself up too much. We’re putting this one behind us and looking forward to the next race.”
“Our goal is to make history,” Van Riper said. “We have two strong teams who, under captains Matt and Emily, have the potential to go further than ever before.”
The men’s and women’s team will head to the Purple Valley Invitational in Williamstown, Massachusetts next, on Sept. 28 as they look to extend their success and push forward towards post-season meets.