RESULTS:
TEAM SCORES /
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
PORTLAND, N.Y. – Put the letters “d” and “r” in front of Erie and that describes the conditions Saturday for the 50th SUNYAC Men's Cross Country championship race at Lake Erie State Park.
Heavy rain turned an already wet course into a quagmire. Glitches with the timing system held up the final results, which were posted, then taken down, after it was discovered runners were missing in the unofficial order of finish.
When a video review was complete, there was no denying an obvious fact. The Geneseo Blue Knights are still the top team in the SUNYAC, even with a first-time championship meet competitor leading the way.
Alex Brimstein, a senior from Webster, N.Y., slogged through the 8,000-meter course in 26:25.08 to win the individual title and earn a spot in the SUNYAC Cross County Hall of Fame. He led the Blue Knights to their 12th conference title.
It was the first time Brimstein ran in the SUNYAC race, an oddity for a senior owed partly to the fact of just how deep the Geneseo roster is – and has been. He finished just ahead of Geneseo teammate, Chris Mateer, also a Webster, N.Y., native who crossed the line in 26:26.45. Brimstein and Mateer were high school teammate at Webster Thomas.
Geneseo's Tom Clark was third in 26:32.47, Cortland's Cody Amengual fourth in 26:34.52, and Geneseo's Ryan Moynihan fifth in 26:38.75. Mateer, Amengual, and Moynihan earned induction in the Hall of Fame by virtue of their top-five finishes. Clark earned entry last year, as did this year's sixth-place finisher Nick Marcantonio (26:42.89) of Cortland.
Ninth-place finisher Tim Chambers (26:56.64) completed Geneseo's scoring quintet while brothers Patrick and Brenden Wortner were the first two displacers. The brothers finished 13th and 14th overall, respectively – Patrick in 27:04.68 and Brenden in 27:10.28. The Blue Knights finished with 20 team points.
Cortland was second in team scoring with 35 points in what ultimately was a two-horse race. Oneonta, with 111 points, was the best of the rest, followed by Buffalo State (128 points), Fredonia State (141 points), Plattsburgh State (151), Brockport (170 points), New Paltz (237 points), Oswego (240 points), and Potsdam (330 points).
The 15-member all-conference team consisted in the first seven finishers on the First Team and the next eight on the Second Team. First Team members were Brimstein, Mateer, Clark, Amengual, Moynihan, Marcantonio, and Tim Lee (seventh; 26:52.93) of Cortland. Second Team members were Chambers, the Wortner brothers, and Chris Moore (15th; 27:13.71) of Geneseo; Tom Hopkins (eighth; 26:54.40), Jarred Iacovelli (10th; 26:59.45), and Joe Blazey (12th; 27:03.23) of Cortland; and John Longo (11th; 27:01.27) of Oneonta.
