Coming off of strong finishes on Saturday Oct. 17 at the Rowan University Inter-Regional Invitational, the Geneseo men’s and women’s cross country teams have a weekend off before heading to SUNY Plattsburgh for the SUNYAC Championships.
The men finished in fourth place out of 24 teams and the women came in ninth place out of 24 teams—solid finishes for both squads. Even when the teams hold back their top runners, they are still a force to be reckoned with.
Though the Knights are one of the top teams in the nation, they continue to try and improve. Head coach Dan Moore has already decided who his top group will be for the upcoming SUNYAC Championships on Oct. 31, but there are still some spots left for runners to try and prove themselves.
“This weekend allowed athletes on the bubble of making the SUNYAC team the opportunity to run with each other,” Moor said. “It also allowed for our top runners to get in a really tough workout against stiff competition.”
The SUNYAC Championships only allow for 14 runners to represent a team, so Moore has some tough decisions ahead of him, but for all the right reasons.
Moore was in Hawaii on Monday Oct. 19 competing in the Ironman World Championships. Moore ran in memory of his sister Molly, who passed away this year from a brain tumor. About halfway through the race, Moore suffered a bad crash which left him with an injured hip and a badly skinned arm. Moore was able to push through, however, and was able to finish the race. He noted that he took away some key things from his experience.
“You can’t let anything stand in your way,” he said. “If you want it bad enough, don’t let anything stop you.” He was able to impart that lesson on his players and he is going to continue to try and teach them that you can’t let anything deter you from your goals.
“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward,” he said.
In addition to the lessons that Moore has been able to bring back from his experience in Hawaii, another thing that is going to help the Knights is the time off between now and SUNYACs. The Championships take place on Halloween, so the team will be able to rest up and focus more on recovery rather than practice. There will still be practice, but Moore believes that nothing could help his teams more right now than a rest before the big race.
“The time off is wonderful,” Moore said. “We can train through and focus more on recovery now. Both teams have worked incredibly hard and it is getting to that point in our cycles where more recovery is needed to compensate from all the work being done.”
With some mending going on, the Knights will be able to be at their strongest come Halloween when everything that they have worked for this season will be on the line.