Orange Men; Knight Repeat as Northeast Region Champions

Friday, November 10

Buffalo, NY

11 a.m. | Noon

Syracuse University

NCAA Northeast Regional

Photo by: Nick LoVerde

Orange Men; Knight Repeat as Northeast Region Champions

11/10/2017 1:55:00 PM | Cross Country

Photo Gallery

For the eighth time in the last-nine seasons and fifth year in a row, the No. 3 Syracuse men's cross country team claimed the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship, while Justyn Knight won the individual title for the third year in a row.

Colin Bennie took second behind Knight. The pair has gone one-two in each of the last three years. The men's 28 team points bests their total of 29 from the 2016 and 2015 title years as the lowest team point total on record at the meet.

In addition, the Syracuse women made up three team places in the final 2k to finish third, led by Paige Stoner and Shannon Malone, who took second and third overall.

The men placed all-five scorers in the top-11 of the 10k race. Knight led the way in 31:43.2, with Bennie finishing in 31:44.9. Aidan Tooker placed sixth in 32:06.1, Philo Germano took eighth in 32:10.1 and Dominic Hockenbury finished 11th in 32:15.4. Joe Dragon finished 15th and Iliass Aouani took 22nd as well to turn in another dominant day for 'Cuse.

By way of finishing in the top-25, all seven racers earned USTFCCCA All-Northeast Region honors.

Stoner traversed the 6k course in 21:24.8 to lead the women, with Malone less than 10 seconds behind in third. New Hampshire's Elinor Purrier claimed the victory by four seconds on Stoner. Madeleine Davison also turned in a strong performance, finishing 18th overall in 22:22.4.

Stoner, Malone and Davison represented the Orange on the USTFCCCA All-Northeast Region team.

Rachel Bonner (32nd/22:37.1) and Eva Scott (62nd/23:01.9) rounded out the scoring for 'Cuse.

With the win, the Syracuse men earned one of the two automatic qualifying spots into the NCAA Cross Country Championship, where the team will seek a fourth-straight top-five finish and a third-straight podium finish. The top-two teams in each region, plus 13 at large selections are entered into the NCAA Championship.

The women's team will wait to gain entrance into the event via an at large selection. With regional finish as the top selection criteria and the Orange taking third, they're in strong position to be one of the 31 teams competing for a national title next week. Selection criteria includes regional meet finish and wins in head-to-head matchups over other teams in regular season competition. Regardless of what happens with the other regionals and team selections, Stoner and Malone punched their ticket to the meet as automatic qualifiers as individuals.

The NCAA Championship will run on Saturday, Nov. 18 on the same course that the Orange men repeated as ACC Champions and won the 2015 NCAA Championship on. Two weeks ago, both Knight and Stoner also claimed individual conference titles at the event.