Cross country shines heading into break

With the weekend behind them, the Geneseo men’s and women’s cross country teams can look ahead to an excellent remainder of their season thanks to their stellar finishes on Saturday Sept. 27 at the Pre-NCAA meet in Mason, Ohio. Both teams had top-two finishes, with the women winning their race and the men coming in second place. The women’s team finished with two runners placing first and second––seniors Cassie Goodman and Alyssa Knott––while also placing seven total runners in the top 20. The men’s team had one top-five finisher with senior Cohen Miles-Rath placing fifth. The team as a whole ended up with five of the top 32 runners.

The only option that the Knights have now is to maintain the level of excellence that they have had throughout the entire season. The teams are in a great position largely due to that fact that some of their runners had unbelievable race times. Miles-Rath completed the eight-kilometer race with a time of 24:02.62, helping the Knights hold on to their victory. Goodman and Knott were the first two finishers of the women’s six-kilometer competition, finishing in under 21:12.00.

“They put themselves on the map. They ran the best races of their lives and they answered the bell,” head coach Mike Woods said.

Now in good standing, the Knights can look ahead to Saturday Oct. 4 when they host the Geneseo Invitational at Letchworth State Park. The competition looks stiff; teams including Dickinson College pose a real threat to the Knights’ goal for victory.

“I don’t think that I need to stress this one as much; the athletes seem to know what’s at stake,” Woods said.

After Saturday, things start to cool down for the Knights. They will have two weeks off before going back to work on Oct. 18 at the Inter-Regional Rumble in Oberlin, Ohio. The two weeks off should be a welcome rest for both teams, who will have had six races in the past four weeks. It will give them the time that they need to recover from injuries and take a break from the mid-season grind.

Although the Geneseo cross country teams have made this season look relatively easy so far, they have had a difficult season. Anytime that you finish first or second at the Pre-NCAAs, your team is going to be a bit tired the next weekend. The Knights are going to have to overcome their fatigue if they plan on winning this coming meet, something on the top of their to-do list.

Women’s soccer prepares for tough weekend of SUNYAC play

Going into SUNYAC openers against SUNY Fredonia and Buffalo State, the Geneseo women’s soccer team had high expectations. The Knights had a 6-1-1 record and were going against two teams that had played average soccer to that point. The Knights were only able to come out of Sept. 26 and Saturday Sept. 27 with one win—losing to Fredonia 2-1 and beating Buffalo State in overtime 2-1.

Despite the tough start to SUNYAC play, head coach Nate Wiley sees the games in a positive light as a whole.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get both of the results that we were looking for,” he said. “But I think we did make the statement that we were looking to make.”

That statement, according to Wiley, was establishing that the Knights as one of the top teams in the conference. Despite the loss to Fredonia, Geneseo dominated possession for the majority of the game. Both of the goals the Knights allowed against the Blue Devils came after long Geneseo possessions.

“I didn’t feel like, at really any point in the game, that they were being dangerous in terms of their possession,” Wiley said. “Unfortunately, soccer is a game where you can dominate the game and have a couple of minor letdowns or slight mistakes and lose the game because of it.”

Against the Bengals, the Knights played a very similar game. They dominated possession and the number of shots on goal. According to Wiley, however, there was one very important difference.

“We don’t need 18 shots [like we had against Fredonia],” he said. “What we need is nine quality shots and I thought we did a better job of that [against Buffalo State].”

Quality shots were difficult to come by against the Blue Devils. Although the Knights took plenty of shots on goal in the second half, very few truly challenged Fredonia’s goalkeeper.

With the first weekend of SUNYAC play in their rearview mirror, the Knights now have to prepare for what should be their toughest weekend all season. Both SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta are strong opponents. That Geneseo has to play both on the road does not bode well for the Knights.

Still, no team in the SUNYAC won both of their games in the opening weekend of conference play. Geneseo sits just one point behind SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cortland––the Knights still have the highest overall winning percentage in the conference.

After playing at New Paltz and Oneonta on Friday Oct. 3 and Saturday Oct. 4, the Knights will return home for a non-conference game against Elmira College on Oct. 8.