NCAA Championship Berths on the Line Friday

A pair of NCAA Championship bids are on the line Friday in Buffalo for the Syracuse men's and women's cross country teams.

The Orange men are looking to continue their dominance as the top program in the Northeast Region for more than a decade and the 'Cuse women aim to capture an NCAA Championship automatic berth for the ninth time in the last dozen years.

A seventh-straight regional title is up for grabs for the men, who have won nine of the last-10 NCAA regional races. A top-two team finish by either gender will give them an automatic berth to next week's NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Meet Info:
- The meet will be available for streaming on Flotrack
- The Women's 6k kicks off first at 11:00 a.m. and the men's 10k follows at 12:00 p.m. It's the first 10k of the year for the Orange.
- The meet will take place at the University at Buffalo.
- The race results can be found here: LIVE RESULTS
- The top-two teams in each race automatically qualify for nationals.

Orange at the Top:
- The men's NCAA Northeast Regional has been dominated by the Orange in recent history.
- Besides winning six in a row and nine of the last-10, 'Cuse has also won the individual race three times in the last-five years thanks to Justyn Knight (2015-17 NCAA Northeast Regional Champion).
- The women have also had a pair of Northeast Region champs a decade apart. Katie Zaferes (formerly Katie Hursey), who went on to be a world champion triathlete, delivered the Orange the individual crown as the two programs swept the NCAA Northeast Regional titles in '09. Shannon Malone book ended the stretch with an individual championship win in last year's race.
- The Orange women also have three regional championships in the past-10 seasons, winning from 2009-11.

Last Year's Championship:
- Syracuse women won the individual title with former Syracuse standout Shannon Malone, leading the women to a sixth-place team finish.
- The men won their 6^th straight regional title and 9^th in the last 10 years. Aidan Tooker, Dominic Hockenbury, and Joe Dragon took sixth (32:56.4), seventh (32:58.1) and eighth (33:01.6), respectively over the 10,000 meter course. Senior Simon Smith (17th) joined the trio of top-10 finishers in earning USTFCCCA All-Northeast Region honors.
- The win earned Brien Bell USTFCCCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year honors, his first as head coach.

Last Time Out
- The last race was another one where the Orange came home with some hardware.
- The Syracuse men won the program's sixth ACC Championship at Virginia Tech. The Orange women took fifth as a team.

Orange in the Polls
- The men jump up to 18^th place in the national rankings up 10 spots from last week's ranking before capturing an ACC title.
- Syracuse women also join the rankings checking in at No. 29 after being unranked the previous week.
- Both the men's and the women's side sit in second place in the regional rankings, the women jump up one spot from the previous week and sit behind Columbia, while the men sit behind Iona.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Dominic Hockenbury

Katie Hursey

Justyn Knight

Shannon Malone

Simon Smith

Aidan Tooker

Syracuse University Athletics