SUNYAC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS 
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 
Women's 6k Race – 11:00 a.m.
Men's 8k Race – 12:00 p.m.
Fortin Park – Oneonta, NY

FOLLOW ALONG…
LIVE RESULTS
CHAMPIONSHIP WEBPAGE (includes spectator information)

THE BREAKDOWN… The Cortland women's and men's cross country teams hope to make it three conference titles in a row at the SUNYAC Championships on Saturday, hosted by Oneonta at Fortin Park. This year's championships will again feature 12 teams, as New Paltz leaves the conference and is replaced by Alfred State. SUNYAC full-member institutions Delhi and Cobleskill compete in the conference championship meet for the second year in a row after also participating as affiliate members in 2025. 
 
On the women's side, Cortland is looking for its 19th conference title, and is looking for its first three-peat since winning 14 straight conference titles from 1984-98. The Red Dragons will also look to grab the individual women's champion spot for the third year in a row, which hasn't been done by Cortland since the 1990s.
 
The Cortland men are also in search of a third straight title this year, which would be a 17th title all-time. The Red Dragons haven't won three consecutive conference titles since doing so from 2006-08. Individually, Nick Marcantonio was the last Red Dragon man to win the individual crown in 2014. 

Cortland head coach Chad Dunham takes the reins for his first SUNYAC Championships in charge of the Red Dragons after being promoted to his post in August. Dunham had been an assistant coach for Cortland since 2022, and was a vital part of the staff during the past two championship seasons. 
 
RETURNERS FROM LAST YEAR'S MEET… Cortland was first out of 12 schools on both the men's and women's sides at last year's SUNYAC Championships, hosted by Plattsburgh at Rugar Woods.  Seven Red Dragons earned all-conference honors for top-15 finishes, and one student-athlete, Brandon Mullholland, was inducted into the SUNYAC Cross Country Hall of Fame.
 
The Cortland women won their 18th SUNYAC title with a dominant victory. The Red Dragons finished with a team score of 49 points, 30 better than second-place finisher Oneonta. Oswego rounded out the top three with a team score of 114 points. 

Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) became the fourth Cortland woman to win consecutive SUNYAC cross country titles and the first in 28 years. The previous three were Barbara Schmitt (1986-87), Michelle LaFleur (1992-94) and Cindy Lauzon (1996-97). She won the championship race in 2024 by more than 21 seconds, but was pushed to the brink in 2025. Leading by more than five seconds with 600 meters remaining, Innocent had to hold off a furious rally from Oswego's Hannah Reichard in a race to the finish, officially winning by a tenth of a second, finishing in 21 minutes, 40.8 seconds to Reichard's 21:40.9 time.
 
Innocent is one of three returning Red Dragons to earn All-SUNYAC honors with top-15 finishes in a field of 92 runners. Also back for Cortland are Jewel Jones (Long Beach), who was ninth last year in 22:44.7, while Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) placed 12th in 22:55.4 and returns to the squad. Peer was also recognized as one of three winners of the SUNYAC Elite 20 Award in 2025, presented to the student-athlete at the SUNYAC finals site with the highest overall GPA.

Cortland will look to replace the production of Alexa Wolcott, who placed eighth in 22:44.3 as a senior last year. Among the returning Red Dragons with the chance to improve upon their scores are three top-30 finishers from last year in Briana Ostheller (Penfield), Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South), and MaryJane Politi (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy). Ostheller was 21st, Hornick was 24th, and Politi was 26th last year. 

Cassidy Wendt (Seaford) and Kelly Newman (Harrison) were both also in the top half of the field last year, with Wendt posting a 33rd-place finish and Newman finishing 37th.

For the men, Cortland won its 16th SUNYAC title overall with a score of 60 points, edging out Fredonia by seven points for the top spot. New Paltz was third in the team standings with 81 points.
 
The Red Dragons will return two of their three All-SUNYAC honorees from last season in Carter Naginey (Groton) and Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West). Naginey was seventh in a time of 26:41.8, while Rautenstrauch placed 11th in 26:56.3. 
 
Cortland will need to replace its top finisher in Brandon Mulholland, who was fifth as a senior last year. The Red Dragons are in strong position to do so with a group of seven other returners who each posted top-30 finishes last year. Vincent Smaldone (Red Hook) was 17th, Landon Fracasse (New Paltz) was 20th, Christian Wissa (Somers) placed 22nd, Daniel Dunn (Oswego) was 24th, Jon Slick (Beekmantown) placed 26th and Kyle Friedel (Irondequoit) was 27th, while Declan Butler (Yonkers/Archbishop Stepinac) placed 29th.

THE CORTLAND CAPSULE… The Cortland women's team opened 2026 by securing four of the top five spots on the way to a team title at the Oneonta Airfield Invite, as Alexa Doe (Adams/South Jefferson) placed first, Melissa Innocent was second, Phoebe Peer finished third, and Briana Ostheller placed fifth. 
 
Cortland then placed second at the Cornell Big Red Open and fourth at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational on back-to-back weekends, with Peer crossing as the top Red Dragon finisher in both meets. Innocent's individual title at the Roberts Wesleyan Invitational, along with third-place finish from Peer and a seventh-place finish by Doe, paced Cortland to a team finish of third.  
 
Cortland had a team runner-up finish out of 20 schools at the Rowan Border Battle, backed by top-20 individual finishes from Innocent, Peer, Doe, and Ostheller. Cortland completed the regular season last weekend at the Cornell Reif Memorial Run, with Cassidy Wendt placing 12th as the top Cortland runner. 
 
The Red Dragon men began the season with 13 runners in the top 20 to place second as a team at the Oneonta Airfield Invite, and then posted another runner-up finish the following week at the Cornell Big Red Open behind top-10 finishes by Hunter Rautenstrauch, Vincent Smaldone, and Landon Fracasse. 
 
Rautenstrauch was the top finisher for the Red Dragons the following week at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational, before Jon Slick led Cortland to a third-place finish at the Roberts Wesleyan Invite the next week. 
 
The Red Dragons recorded a third-place finish out of 19 teams at the Rowan Border Battle in their penultimate race of the regular season, with Rautenstrauch, Daniel Dunn, Carter Naginey, Smaldone, and Kyle Friedel all crossing in the top-40 out of 177 runners. 
 
Cortland finished off the regular season at the Cornell Reif Memorial Run last weekend, with Anthony Rizzo (Rochester/Irondequoit) and Thomas Loeb-Lojko (New York/West End Secondary School) as the top two Cortland runners.

INNOCENT FOR THREE… Melissa Innocent is hoping to become only the second Red Dragon woman to claim three consecutive SUNYAC titles. Michelle LaFleur is the other Cortland runner to accomplish the feat, doing so in three straight years from 1992-94. 
 
CUTTING IT CLOSE…The victory in last year's SUNYAC Championships for the Cortland men by just seven points was the second-smallest margin of victory in the conference meet on the men's side since 2000. Only Geneseo's win by four points over Cortland in 2014 was a smaller margin of victory.
 
TIMES TO BEAT… The men's 8k winning time at the SUNYAC Championships last season was 26:06.8, which has been bested already once this season by Jon Slick at the Roberts Wesleyan Invitational. Meanwhile, Melissa Innocent's winning time at last year's SUNYAC Championships was 21:40.8 on the 6k course and has not been bettered by the Cortland women yet, although the Red Dragons have only competed twice on a 6k course.
 
SUNYAC WEEKLY WINNERS… Cortland has claimed SUNYAC weekly awards seven times this season, and by six different runners. Melissa Innocent was the only Red Dragons to win the conference's Women's Runner of the Week award multiple times, doing so twice. Meanwhile, Phoebe Peer and Cassidy Wendt were each chosen as the Runner of the Week once. On the men's side, Jon Slick, Hunter Rautenstrauch, and Anthony Rizzo each claimed Runner of the Week honors once. 

CHAMPIONSHIP BOX ASSIGNMENTS…

MEN	PLATTSBURGH
	POTSDAM
	DELHI
	CORTLAND
	ONEONTA
	COBLESKILL
	ALFRED STATE
	OSWEGO
	FREDONIA
	MORRISVILLE
	BUFFALO STATE
	CANTON

 

WOMEN	ONEONTA
	BUFFALO STATE
	FREDONIA
	CANTON
	MORRISVILLE
	CORTLAND
	ALFRED STATE
	DELHI
	POTSDAM
	COBLESKILL
	PLATTSBURGH
	OSWEGO

 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION… On the women's side, Cortland is one of only two current SUNYAC members to have won a team SUNYAC title, along with Plattsburgh's lone title in 1999. For the men, Cortland and three other SUNYAC members have won conference team titles. Fredonia has won eight conference titles, but none since 1992. Plattsburgh has claimed five championships, most recently in 1997. Buffalo State won the last of its three conference titles in 1969. 
 
Both of last year's individual champions, Melissa Innocent for Cortland and Stephen Hallberg for Fredonia, look to defend their titles this season. In addition, the following athletes finished in the top 30 individually in last year's SUNYAC Championships and return for their sides to push for all-conference honors with top-15 finishes and help in the team standings (with 2025 finish in parentheses):
 

BUFFALO STATE:	Ricky Curiel (3rd – Men's)
	Noah Holden (10th – Men's)
	Josh Mayer (15th – Men's)
COBLESKILL:	Gabrielle Waite (22nd – Women's)
DELHI:	Charlotte Warner (6th – Women's)
FREDONIA:	Stephen Hallberg (1st – Men's)
	Kevin Mosher (9th – Men's)
	Lucas Peterson-Volz (13th – Men's)
	Edward Jourdan (19th – Men's)
	Kaden Worthley (30th – Men's)
MORRISVILLE:	Michael Ventricelli (8th – Men's)
ONEONTA:	Natalia Sweat (10th – Women's)
	Anya Sloth (13th – Women's)
	Jill Cinquina (18th – Women's)
	Anna Kern (23rd – Women's)
	Alex Wheeler (25th – Men's)
OSWEGO:	Hannah Reichard (2nd – Women's)
	Kyra Pellegrino (3rd – Women's)
	Elena Gaffney (5th – Women's)
	Gia Engel (15th – Women's, Competed for Oneonta)
PLATTSBURGH:	Grace Estus (17th – Women's)
	Ellie LeRoy (27th – Women's)
	Ella Stuttard (29th – Women's)

SCHEDULES/RESULTS (click team to access online schedules)…

CORTLAND WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
 
CORTLAND MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY