With fall sports starting back up at Cortland, Cross County looks to make a deep run in the postseason.
SUNY Cortland’s Cross Countys team has had three meets so far into the 2025 season with both the men and women’s team receiving 1st place in their most recent, the SUNYAC Preview meet in Plattsburgh on September 13th. The men’s team received 1st of 6 and the women’s team received 1st of 3. The teams opened with the Saint John Fisher Rodenbeck Invitational in Pittsford on August 29th where the men ranked 4th of 10 and the women ranked 3rd of 11. The teams then traveled to Cornell in Ithica on September 5th and suffered a 50-15 loss. In the most recent meet in Plattsburgh, Cortland had four of the top five individual men runners. Senior Brandon Mulholland finished 1st overall with a time of 26:51.2. Sophomore Carter Naginey (27:35.7) finished 3rd, sophomore Hunter Rautenstrauch (27:44.9) finished 4th and sophomore Jordan Wingert (27:56.7) received 5th. The women’s team had three of the top five runners, juniors Jewel Jones (23:54.8) receiving 3rd and Melissa Innocent (23:55.2) receiving 4th. Senior Alexa Wolcott (23:56.3) finished 5th.
The team will travel to Rochester for their next meet on Saturday, September 27th to run in the Roberts Wesleyan Harry Anderson Invitational. The meet starts at 10:30 in the morning. In this meet last year Cortland’s men’s team finished 7th with a total time 2:14.15 and an average time of 26:51 in the 8k. Cortland’s women’s team finished 8th with their total time being 1:39.23 and an average time of 19:52 in the 5k.
After traveling to Rochester, the teams will head to Bethlehem Pennsylvania on October 3rd to run in the Lehigh Paul Short Run. On October 11th Cortland will travel to Clinton for the Hamilton Invitational and a week later they will travel to Logan Township, New Jersey for the Rowan Border Battle on October 18th. Cortland will then finish up the regular season back in Ithica on October 24th for the Cornell John Reif Memorial Run.
The SUNYAC championship takes place on Saturday November 2nd at 11:00 am in Plattsburgh. Last year, taking place in Oswego, both Cortland’s men’s and women’s teams ran away with first place out of ten which got them to Fredonia to compete in the NCAA Division III Niagra Regional. The men’s team finished 11th out of 22 and the women’s team finished 10th of 21. Melissa Innocent advanced to the Division III championship where she finished with a time of 23:49.6 in the 8k.
Both Cortland’s Cross County teams had great seasons last year and they’ve had some promising performances this year to continue that success. Both teams look to send athletes to compete in the national championship which will take place on Saturday November 22nd in Spartanburg, South Carolina
For full schedule details you can visit, Cross Country Schedules/Results – SUNY Cortland Athletics and athlete’s times are recorded at TFRRS | College Track & Field Rankings and Meet Results.