This past weekend, the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 30 where the men’s team finished 11th out of 16 schools and the women’s team placed fifth out of 17 schools.
“I’m very happy for the fact that we had runners from both teams that significantly improved their times from last year at this same event,” head coach Mike Trunkes said.
Some notable times from the Hawks include second-year Megan Reilly, who finished eighth out of 221 runners with a time of 18 minutes, 1 second. Second-year Emily Cavanagh finished 13th overall with a time of 18:19.1. On the men’s side, fourth-year co-captains Stephen Smith and Barrett Celecki placed 26th and 78th overall with times of 26:22.0 and 27:12.7, respectively. Celecki realizes this event is a way to prepare for the remainder of the season.
“The meet was meant to get our team comfortable to racing and prepare us for the championship part of the season,” Celecki said.
The Hawks are preparing for the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championships which will take place on Saturday Oct. 28. Reilly touched on what she would consider a successful season for the Hawks.
“A successful season is one where most people on the team feel accomplished with the improvement from the beginning of the season,” Reilly said. “The team just has to stay motivated and get down to work when it’s time to amp up our training for the end of the season.”
The Hawks will next compete at the Connecticut College at 11 a.m. on Oct. 14.