Head coach Chris Fox (Nov. 2, 2009)
On the meaning of the BIG EAST Championship:
"It was the first BIG EAST Championship in the history of Syracuse University. We went from last five years ago to first, so we're pretty pleased with what's transpired on the men's side and the women's side, they were third, which is the highest finish ever for Syracuse, too."
On whether they became champions faster than they thought they would:
"We probably did it a year faster than we thought we could. We thought we might get second or third this year to Georgetown, Providence, and Villanova – the traditional powers, but we just got a little better a little sooner."
On the men's race:
"The big breakthrough race was for Pat Dupont, he's from Rochester. He ran an incredible race, he's only a sophomore and he was fourth overall in what is the best conference in the country in our sport."
On how he expects next year's team to be:
"We lose three seniors, but we bring back so many people next year and we redshirt a lot of people. We actually think we'll be better next year."
On the women's race:
"We knew we could be third, fourth or fifth. We couldn't have been better than that probably. The teams that beat us, Villanova and West Virginia, are ranked second and fourth in the country. We had never beat Georgetown and they were ranked in the top 10, and we had never beat Providence either, so those were two real traditional powers in our sport and we were able to beat both of them. It was a bit of a surprise, but it's what we wanted."
On setting high goals:
"We have bigger goals than this down the line. We want to be a national champion in the next couple years. That's the goal, that's why we do it."
On what's coming up next for both teams:
"We have the NCAA Regionals in two weeks in Boston, which should go okay. Then we'll go to Nationals. The goal for both teams will be a top 10 finish. There are 300 schools that do our sport, so if we can go to top 10 from being ranked 260 a few years ago, we'll be pretty pleased at this point. Both teams will be ranked top 10 in the country by tonight and that will be the first time ever for Syracuse."
