Orange Seek NCAA Title on Saturday

Syracuse at NCAA Cross Country Championships
Meet Details	Saturday, Nov. 18 \| Louisville, Ky. \| 9/10 a.m.
Meet Coverage	Live Coverage: Live Results Watch: FloTrack Twitter: @CuseXCTF Instagram: @suxctf Facebook: /Cuse
Syracuse Links	News \| M. Roster \| W. Roster \| 2017 Results \| Meet Notes

Orange at the NCAA Championships
- The Syracuse men's cross country team enters Saturday's meet seeking its fifth-straight top-10 finish, fourth-straight top-five finish and third-straight podium finish.
- Highlighted by the 2015 NCAA Championship on this same course, head coach Chris Fox and company have led to a resurgence on the national scene for the Orange, who enter Saturday's meet ranked third.
- Syracuse took third at last year's NCAA Championship, with Justyn Knight, Colin Bennie and now graduated Joel Hubbard turning in All-America performances.
- The Orange women are also back in the event after earning an at-large selection. The women's team has been selected to participate in eight of the last-10 NCAA Championships.

Orange Press:
- FloTrack: Justyn Knight and the Orange: Taking Care of Business
- FloTrack: Best of the NCAA XC Banquet
- Post Standard: Syracuse's Best Chance at a National Championship Comes Saturday
- Daily Orange: How Coach Fox Molded Orange into National Powerhouse
- Nunes Magician: Syracuse Eyes Another National Title
- Daily Orange: Knight and Stoner Look to Lead NCAA Success
- Daily Orange: Germano Transforms from Walk On to All-American
- Daily Orange: Knight Seeking Individual National Title
- Daily Orange: Bennie is a Model of Consistency
- Daily Orange: Aouani is Finally Healthy for 'Cuse
- Daily Orange: Tooker and Malone Keys for Orange
- Daily Orange: Stoner Prepares for Home Stretch of XC Career
- Daily Orange: Dragon Provides Much Needed Depth
- Daily Orange: A Nondescript Road in Manlius Provides Blueprint to Training

About the Meet
- The race will take place at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky.
- The course was also the site of the 2015 NCAA Championships where the men won their first national championship since 1951.
- The course also hosted the 2017 ACC Championships at the 8k/6k distance.

Fond Course Memories
- The Orange have made history at their last two races at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park. The Orange men won the 2015 NCAA Championship and the 2017 ACC Championship in dominant fashion there.
- Justyn Knight placed fourth at the 2015 NCAA Championships to lead three returning All-Americans from that season back for 2017. Knight (fourth), Colin Bennie (eighth) and Philo Germano (39th) all turned in strong performances in their last 10k there.
- At their last time on the course, Knight claimed the ACC individual title, and was joined on the All-ACC Team by Bennie, Philo Germano, Aidan Tooker, Joe Dragon and Dominic Hockenbury.
- No members from the Orange women's roster was active at that meet in 2015, but at the ACC Championships in October, Paige Stoner claimed the individual ACC Championship and was followed closely by Shannon Malone, who also turned in a top-10 finish and earned All-ACC honors.

Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back
- The Syracuse men's cross country team won its sixth straight conference title (fifth ACC Championship in a row) and eighth conference title in the last-nine seasons at the 2017 ACC Championships.
- The team total of 27 points was the lowest in more than 15 years in the conference, before the league expanded to its current slate of 15 teams.
- The team win was so dominant that if the other 14 ACC men's cross country teams were made up of one team, Syracuse would have still defeated the field by a score of 27 to 28.

Orange Sweep
- Paige Stoner and Justyn Knight swept the individual titles at the ACC Championship.
- It was Knight's second-straight ACC title and his 10th total conference title, including his time on the track.
- Stoner was the first Orange women to win gold in the ACC for cross country, since the Orange joined the league for the 2013 season.

Historic Levels of Conference Success
- The Syracuse men could became just the third men's team to win five straight conference titles this season - and is still undefeated in ACC Championship meets.
- Only Maryland's six from 1964-69 and NC State's five from 1995-1999 match or better the Orange's mark.
- The win also means Syracuse moves into sole possession of sixth (fifth among current members) for the most TOTAL men's ACC Cross Country Championships, despite only being in the conference for five seasons. NC State (15), Maryland (10), North Carolina (9), Clemson (7) and Duke (7) are the lone schools with better tallies all time.

Ranking The Orange
- The Syracuse men enter the NCAA Championship ranked at No. 3 in the USTFCCCA's poll.
- Syracuse hasn't been ranked outside of the top-six since the 2013 season.
- 'Cuse has also been ranked No. 1 in each of the previous two seasons and received a first place heading into the final meet of the season.
- The Syracuse women are appearing in the poll for the first time this season, checking in at No. 28 heading into the weekend.

Orange Earn Regional Awards
- For the fifth consecutive season, head coach Chris Fox has earned USTFCCCA Men's Coach of the Year honors.
- Justyn Knight also earned regional recognition, being named USTFCCCA Northeast Region Men's Performer of the Year for the second straight year.
- Knight is the first Syracuse student-athlete to win the award multiple times and only runner in the history of the award to win it three times. Iona's Leonard Korir (2010, 2011) and Richard Kiplagat (2003, 2005), as well as Providence's Keith Kelly (1998, 2000) as the only men to win the award in multiple seasons.
- Knight is just the second Syracuse student-athlete to win the award, following up Katie Zaferes, formerly Katie Hursey, who won the honor in 2009. Hursey represented the United States in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last summer, competing in the triathlon.

Region Dominance
- The Syracuse men have also won five-straight NCAA Northeast Regional Championships after this year's performance, in addition to their conference dominance.
- Head coach Chris Fox has seen his programs win 11 regional championships, including eight from the men's program.
- The eight men's titles have all come in the past-nine seasons.

Knight Time
- Senior Justyn Knight enters Saturday's meet as the top returning competitor from the 2016 meet and likely favorite for the individual title. He's been close numerous times to the individual national championship, but is still seeking becoming Syracuse's first individual cross country national champion. 'Cuse has one NCAA track title from Jarret Eaton in 2012 in the 60-meter hurdles, but Knight would be the first XC Champion if he were to pull off the win on Saturday
- Knight is a seven-time All-American including his time on the track, and has twice been a national runner up. He's finished fourth or better at an NCAA Championship event four
times.
- Stanford's Grant Fisher is the only runner in the meet to have beaten Justyn in collegiate competition, edging him at the line in the 2017 NCAA Outdoor 5k Championship.
- Knight has been Syracuse's top-finisher in every race he's competed in since the 2014 NCAA Championship and hasn't been defeated in a non-NCAA Championship race since the 2015 ACC Championship.
- Knight is coming off a ninth-place finish at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London in the 5k, which slowed the start to his season. He's raced one less time than a typical season, not beginning his competition until the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in October.

Stoner Looking to Make History
- After an ACC title and a second-place finish at the NCAA Northeast Regional, Paige Stoner
has an opportunity to become just the second woman in Syracuse history to earn All-
America honors in cross country.
- A finish of 28th or better this weekend would mark the best finish by a Syracuse woman in
the meet's history.
- Coming off a 24th-place finish at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational before her top-two finishes in both championship meets this season, Stoner has already earned All-America honors in track at the 3000-meter steeplechase last outdoor season and narrowly missed qualifying for the final.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Colin Bennie

Philo Germano

Dominic Hockenbury

Justyn Knight

Shannon Malone

Paige Stoner

Aidan Tooker

Syracuse University Athletics