Track Stars Dominate John Reif

Friday, October 25

Ithaca, NY

TBA

Syracuse University

John Reif Memorial

Aouani looking strong in his second SU race.

Photo by: Brian McWalters

10/25/2019 8:20:00 PM | Cross Country

Racing unattached, Syracuse's Iliass Aouani dominated the field by nearly 40 seconds to win the men's John Reif Memorial on Friday night, with Annie Heffernan, who'll used her year as a graduate transfer to compete on the Orange track team, won by nearly 50 seconds.

Aouani, who has track eligibility remaining and will return this spring, raced to a time of 14:44.3. Behind him were another three Orange unattached competitors on the men's side, as Alex Comerford (15:23.5), Joey Eovaldi (15:32.8) and Silas Derfel (15:34.0) all turned in solid times over the 5k course.

Keith McAteer (16:19.9), finished eighth overall as the first runner representing the Orange as a team, followed by Matt Cavallaro (16:31.2) and Matthew Dragon (16:31.8) right on his heels.

Heffernan crossed the line in 17:41.9, followed by freshman Emily Nugent (18:31.7), Ryley Higgins (18:42.2) and Maggie Toczko (18:57.3) in the next three spots. Elizabeth Cultra (19:04.8) took eighth, Kate Kemnitz, also racing unattached, took 13th (19:27.4), and Abigail Walsh (19:39.4) finished in 16th to round out what would have been the Orange top-seven without unattached runners.

The race concludes the regular season for 'Cuse, who'll be back in action next week at the ACC Championships.