The men's and women's cross-country teams had a strong weekend at the Rochester Yellowjacket invitational: the women cruised to first place, and the men raced to second, finishing behind only the Cornell "B" team.
Coach Mike Woods cited Geneseo's ability to run together as the key to the successful weekend. "The thing we are looking for in a race is our scoring five to finish in a pack, and our women's team did a great job of that this weekend, with four of our five finishing within five seconds of each other."
Senior Laura Iafrati led Geneseo women, finishing with a time of 18:36 in third place. Junior Danielle Hunt finished in 18:37 in fourth place, freshman Alyssa Smith came in fifth with a time of 18:41.1, and junior Erin Marks, who ran her best race of the year, rounded out the first pack with a sixth place finish and a time of 18:41.8. Senior Lisa Halloran completed the scoring, crossing the line in 19th place, with a time of 19:05.
The men also had much to be pleased about. Coach Woods was thrilled with the times of his scoring five, especially considering the number one and number five runners were both out with injuries. "In college cross-country, the 26 minute mark for 8000 meters is really the cutoff to be considered a very good time, and we had all our men scoring right in that area."
Junior Tim Chichester and senior Brett Dolan led the way for the Knights, finishing eighth and ninth respectively, with times of 25:31 and 25:39. Junior Bobby Henchen originally of Geneseo High School, had a career race to help fill the hole created by injuries, and ran to 11th place, with a time of 25:45. Sophomore Tom Reubens, and junior Jesse Berube rounded out the scoring, finishing 17th and 20th respectively with times of 25:56 and 26:01.
The Rochester Invitational marks the end of the regular season for both men's and women's cross-country. The SUNYAC championships will be held at Letchworth State Park on Saturday, Nov. 1. The women take off at 11 p.m., with the men to follow at noon.