Orange Ready to Defend Title

The Syracuse cross country teams will start the championship portion of their season on Friday at the ACC Championships.

Lucky No. 7

The men's cross country team has won the ACC Championship in all five years that it has been a part of the conference. Combined with the 2012 BIG EAST Championship in its last year of participating in that league, Syracuse is seeking its seventh-straight conference title and ninth in the last 10 years.
Last year's team was so dominant, that they actually defeated the field. If the Orange competed against the rest of the ACC as a whole (14 other schools), Syracuse would have still won, 27-28.
A win for the men's team in 2018 would tie Maryland for the most-consecutive ACC titles in the conference's history. Maryland, which is no longer an ACC institution, won six in a row from 1964-69. Syracuse is on pace to complete the feat in its first six years in the conference.
Last year, the Orange swept the individual ACC Championship titles for the men and women. Justyn Knight led the way for the men, while Paige Stoner became the first woman in program history to win an individual conference title.
The women's team are coming off a strong fourth place finish at the event last year.

Following the Meet

The race will take place at Franklin Park in Boston, Massachusetts for the first time since 2010.
The course is a familiar one for the Orange, who has raced it nearly annually at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, an event that takes place in late September each season.
The women's 6K race will commence at 10:03 a.m. followed by the men's race at 11:03 a.m.
Fans can watch the meet live on ACC Network Extra.

Tooker Time

Junior Aidan Tooker comes into the event as the hottest runner for the men's team, being named ACC Performer of the Week on Oct. 17.
He's likely the Orange's favorite to defend an individual title from the men's roster as he was the team's top-finisher at Wisconsin Pre-Nats.
He nearly won the individual crown at pre-nats, finishing second in a very strong field.
Tooker also helped lead the Orange to a first-place finish at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, as he finished second.

Malone Returns

The top-returning runner from last season's roster, Shannon Malone is expected to make her season debut at ACCs.
The Orange senior missed part of the season due to injury.
She's coming off a 2017 campaign that saw her take third at the NCAA Northeast Regional.

Ranking the Orange

Both the men's and women's teams will enter the event ranked in the USTFCCCA poll.
The men check in at number ten, making them the highest ranked ACC men's team.
The women are ranked 25 after a strong showing at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals meet.

Last Time Out

The Orange had a strong showing at Cornell in the John Reif Memorial.
Although the race was not scored from a team perspective, they turned in a first-place finish from Matthew Scrape (who was running unattached) and a second place finish from Kelsey Potts.
The men's team took seven of the top eight spots, including its unattached runners, while the women took three of the top ten.