On Saturday, Sept. 1, the Geneseo cross country teams traveled to Buffalo State for the Buffalo State Invitational. Both teams managed a second place finish against several strong regional opponents. Many top runners for both Geneseo squads did not make the trip to Buffalo for the race, giving testament to the depth of these teams.
Junior Christiana Martin led Geneseo, crossing in third place with a time of 19:13 to lead the Knights against Bloomsburg University in the 5K race. Junior Lauren Ferrimani and senior Karen Merrill both crossed in 19:49, good enough for ninth and 10th place. Juniors Larkin Kimmerer, who was 12th in 19:54, and Meg Anderson, who was 14th in 20:04, rounded out the scoring five for the Lady Knights. Fellow juniors Mary McGrath and Lisa Halloran completed the top seven with times of 20:07 and 20:18.
As for the men's squad, their 71 points netted them second place, with first place going to Mt. Union, who scored 25. This effort was led by the running of senior Ryan O'Connor, who was second with a time of 25:53. Close behind O'Connor was freshman Bill Juda, who crossed in 26:12 in his Geneseo debut, good enough for fifth place overall in the 8K course.
"I was particularly pleased with the efforts of Bill Juda and Ryan O'Connor," said Coach Woods of his two top runners. "They're both freshmen and they ran great races against varsity squads."
The rest of the scoring five consisted of junior Ben DeGeorge who crossed in 27:08, landing him 23rd overall, Thomas Soeller, who was 24th in 27:10 and freshman Matt Koennecke, who claimed 28th in 27:26. Freshmen Craig Lalonde took 31st in 27:34 and Paul Mesi finished 35th in 27:49 to round out the top seven. The Knights will travel to the Oswego Invitational on Saturday to face the likes of SUNY Brockport, Ithaca, Buffalo State and Keuka College.