Tooker's 2nd-Place Finish Highlights Strong Pre-Nats Showing

Saturday, October 13

Madison, WI

11 AM

Syracuse University

NCAA Pre-Nationals

Tooker's 2nd-Place Finish Highlights Strong Pre-Nats Showing

10/13/2018 2:31:00 PM | Cross Country

Aidan Tooker's runner-up performance powered the No. 8 Syracuse men to a third-place finish in the White Race at NCAA Pre-Nationals, while the women's team finished eighth in the Cardinal Race at a meet that featured one of the deepest fields of any regular season meet in recent memory.

Tooker moved up seven spots in the final-400 meters, showcasing his closing speed that earned him All-America honors on the track last season. The Orange junior crossed the line in 23:54.84, 0.3 seconds behind BYU's Rory Linkletter for the white race win.

No. 2 BYU also won the team event with 29 points, while No. 12 Washington finished second with 106. 'Cuse's 195 points topped No. 25 UCLA (205), Notre Dame (220), No. 10 Air Force (231), No. 13 Purdue (234), No. 21 Indiana (298), No. 9 Portland (322) and No. 17 Washington State (326).

No. 1 Northern Arizona won the Cardinal Race, in a meet that was split into two even fields for each gender, with an additional open race following, due to the number of entered teams.

Behind Tooker, sophomore Noah Affolder (24:26) finished in 35th, senior Iliass Aouani (24:31.8) placed 43rd, junior Simon Smith (24:43.6) crossed the line in 56th and redshirt sophomore Joe Dragon (24:45.6) took 59th to round out the SU scoring. Junior Kevin James (25:00.5) and redshirt-sophomore Dominc Hockenbury (25:16.6) were the sixth and seventh Syracuse runners.

The women, still without top-returner Shannon Malone, used a strong finish to take eighth in a race that featured 12 ranked teams. The unranked Orange posted team scores ahead of No. 1 Colorado, No. 18 Ole Miss and No. 25 Florida State.

Redshirt-freshman Laura Dickinson led the way for 'Cuse, crossing the line in 20:52.2, which was good for 29th overall. The finish was the collegiate cross country debut for Dickinson.

Sophomore Rachel Bonner (20:55.7) finished closely behind in 33rd, while junior Madeleine Davison took 46th in 21:11.7. Senior Mary Malone (21:11.9) and freshman Abigail Spiers (21:40.4) rounded out the SU scoring in 48th and 113rd, respectively.

As a team, the women scored 269 points in a closely-packed race, nine points behind No. 21 Minnesota. No. 7 Arkansas (51) edged No. 4 Oregon (71) for the team title. 'Cuse was the second of four ACC squads in the race, with No. 13 NC State (180) finishing fifth. The Orange downed Florida State (401) and Duke (474) in the meet.

Next, Syracuse will have a final tune up at the John Reif Memorial next weekend before the men's squad looks to defend its ACC Championship on Oct. 26 in Boston.