After beginning the campaign earlier this month with a warm-up meet at the Colgate/Harry Lang Invitational, the Binghamton men’s and women’s cross country teams brought the program’s top runners to the Iona Meet of Champions last Friday. With several runners making their season debuts, both squads finished third overall in the team competition while placing one runner each in the top five of each respective meet.

“For lot of athletes it was their first meet of the season,” said Binghamton head coach Annette Acuff. “So I didn’t have necessarily any specific expectations. We were just keeping in mind going in for a lot of kids just to get a better gauge of where everyone’s at fitness wise … a lot of kids were naturally a little rusty, because they haven’t raced cross country in a little less than a year.”

The day began with the women’s 5K race, and junior Sydney Leitner wasted no time in getting Binghamton to the top of the leaderboards. Leitner crossed the line in 18:27.3 to finish in fifth place — less than 17 seconds behind the race winner. In many ways, this was Leitner picking up where she left off last season, having finished the 2023 season with America East all-conference first-team honors after battling injuries all year long.

“With her workouts that she’s had this summer, I think [Leitner] was pretty confident,” Acuff said. “She’s very familiar with the Van Cortlandt Park course, so that gives her a lot of confidence as well. This is her third year running at the collegiate level at this meet, so she felt like she had a very good opener.”

Elsewhere in the field, three other Bearcats punched in top-30 finishes in the 71-runner field to help cement the bronze placement for the Bearcat ladies. Making her Binghamton debut, graduate student Molly FitzGibbons secured a time of 19:13.5 to place 21st overall. Elsewhere in the top 30 in 24th was senior Jennifer Mui with a time of 19:20.0, while freshman Anna Gansrow ran a 19:29.7 in her first collegiate meet to bring home a 28th place result.

Next on the day’s docket was the men’s 8K, and all eyes were on the season debut of graduate student Josh Stone. Stone was BU’s top men’s runner in 2023 as he secured two individual meet wins and a bronze medal at the AE championship, and he lived up to his reputation during Friday’s contest. The Bearcat began his final collegiate season on the podium, capturing a third-place finish with a time of 25:32.4.

“[Stone] opened up well,” Acuff said. “I think because of his development last year, both in cross country and in track, he certainly gained a lot of fitness development and confidence that he can take into this season.”

Strengthening the Bearcat men’s third-place team effort were four other top-25 placements. Juniors Andrew Rosenblatt and Austin Wefer finished back-to-back in 18th and 19th with respective times of 27:12.5 and 27:19.1. Just missing out on the top 20 was sophomore Luke Miklus, who crossed the line in 27:22.2 to finish 21st and continue his strong start to the season. Just behind Miklus was graduate student Asa Friedrich in 22nd place with a time of 27:26.8.

“There’s a pretty big gap between our front runner [and the pack] again, time wise,” Acuff said. “If you look at the time [Stone] is running, the time that [Leitner’s] running, and then at our second, third, fourth and fifth kids, it’s a pretty big gap. So right now I think that’s my biggest concern is how much can we close that gap with the rest of our five. Because at the conference meet, you really need to be able to put five up there as close to the top-30 to be able to have a top-three finish in conference, and that’s certainly what we’d like to be able to do this fall.”

Binghamton will be back in action for its biggest nonconference meet of the year at the Lehigh/Paul Short Run on Saturday, Oct. 5. The first race is set for 9:30 a.m. at the Lehigh Goodman Campus Cross Country Course in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.