ONEONTA, N.Y. – The Cortland women's cross country team won its third straight State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) title, and its 19th overall, and Red Dragon senior Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) claimed her third consecutive SUNYAC individual title, at the conference championship meet hosted by SUNY Oneonta at Fortin Park.

Cortland finished first out of nine teams with 35 points, followed by Oswego with 48 and Oneonta with 68. The standings also included Plattsburgh (100), Buffalo State (159), Delhi (199), Morrisville (201), Alfred State (216) and Cobleskill (227). Potsdam, Canton and Fredonia did not have enough runners compete to earn a team score. Oswego led the team scoring at the 2,100-meter checkpoint, but Cortland took the lead by the 4,000-meter mark and extended its margin at the 5,500-meter mark on the way to the victory.

Innocent won the 86-runner, 6,000-meter race in 22 minutes, 10.9 seconds. She's only the second runner in SUNYAC Women's Cross Country history to win three straight titles, joining Cortland's Michelle LaFleur (1992-94) in that club. Innocent was seventh at the 620-meter mark, but moved up to third 2,100 meters into the race and was leading at the 4,000-meter checkpoint.

Innocent was one of four Cortland runners to earn All-SUNYAC honors with top-15 finishes. She and Alexa Doe (Adams/South Jefferson) are first-team honorees by virtue of top-five finishes Doe finished third in 22:17.8, improving from 14th at the 620-meter point to fifth at 2,100 meters, third at 4,000 meters, and second at 5,500 meters before finishing third. Doe's finish earned her a spot in the SUNYAC Cross Country Hall of Fame - an honor that goes to runners who finish in the top five of the league championship race, once, the top 10 twice, or the top 15 three times.
 
Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) and Briana Ostheller (Penfield) earned second-team All-SUNYAC recognition with finishes between sixth and 10th. Peer was sixth in the field in 22:46.0, while Ostheller was ninth in 23:10.3. Peer's placement during the race was pretty consistent as she was fifth at 620 meters, fourth at 2,100 meters, sixth at 4,000 meters, and fifth at 5,500 meters. Ostheller was 16th at the 620-meter mark and moved forward to eighth at 2,100 meters. She was still eighth at 5,500 meters before slipping back slightly to ninth at the finish.

Cortland's other 10 runners all finished in the top 40 of the race. Makayla Renzo (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) was the Red Dragons' final scorer in 18th place (24:05.3), while Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) finished 20th (24:15.4) and Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) placed 21st (24:18.2) as score displacers.

Alessandra Finnerty-Vidal (Dobbs Ferry/Ardsley) finished in 22nd place (24:20.2), Allie Snell (Potsdam/Parishville-Hopkinton) was 25th (24:28.4), and MaryJane Politi (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) finished 29th (24:44.7). Cassidy Wendt (Seaford) placed 30th (24:47.3), Emily Neuman (Auburn) was 31st (24:47.8), Abi Tessier (Delhi/Delaware Academy) finished 32nd (24:48.3), and Jewel Jones (Long Beach) finished in 40th place (25:22.1).

Cortland will compete at the NCAA Division III Niagara Region Championships Nov. 14 in Fredonia.

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Chad Dunham:

Hello and thank you for following along with us this Fall. This meet was a fun celebration for the teams after a lot of the work they did through this semester. A special mention to the Staff at Oneonta for putting on a well run Championship meet is in order, we can't thank them enough!
 
In the 43rd Women's SUNYAC Cross Country Championships, I'm happy to share the team won their third title in a row. On the individual side, Melissa Innocent won her 3rd Conference Championship in a row - an impressive feat we all appreciated witnessing. One thing I would say about her race and the Women's team as a whole, when it was time to be decisive with the move to win they made it happen well!
 
A special shout out also goes to Alexa Doe, stepping up in a huge breakout race to be 3rd overall and our second runner! Phoebe Peer and Briana Ostheller also earned All-Conference with their strong runs in 6th and 9 and after that the depth of our team really showed! First Year Makayla Renzo had an exceptional run to finish in the top 20, then 3 teammates were following close (only 5sec apart amongst themselves) to round out our scorers. We can't say enough how proud we are of how the team carries themselves at this meet, and with our whole roster finishing 40th or better we're certainly proud with the team they've built! 

On the men's side, in the 63rd edition of the Men's Championship our packs certainly showed their strength! The front of this race played out in a really exciting manner, with a lot of folks up to the front letting the pace making happen as a group!
 
When it started to get strung out, our first few runners responded well and fought hard. Carter Naginey walks away with his 3rd place finish after a close battle! Our next few we're far behind, with Landon Fracasse, Mason Brozowski, and Hunter Rautenstrauch also registering top 10 places. Mason deserves a special shout out for quite literally running out of his mind, our fastest last 4k on the team and inserting himself as our 3rd runner for valuable points!

Kyle Friedel also earns all-conference honors - up 15 spots higher than his performance at this meet last year! Also a worthy mention, first year Nicholas Doran closed impressively across the back half of the race for a strong first run. The men's team is absolutely highlighted by the packs working to help pull each other along - a few even sacrificed their early race to set up the first 2-3k for them, and such contributions shouldn't go unnoticed! 

While some will transition now, we'll have the squads still training for Regionals - another fun championship meet we look forward to getting after! As always, thanks for reading!