Looking to warm up some of its runners in a competitive environment, the Binghamton men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Colgate/Harry Lang Invitational last Saturday to open the 2024 campaign. As the team strung together promising finishes from some of its underclassmen, the men finished third overall while the women placed fifth out of the five competing teams.
“It really was just kind of a rust-buster,” said Binghamton head coach Annette Acuff. “Just to get a general idea of the fitness level and how some freshmen compete — ‘How do they handle the collegiate level of racing?’ I was really impressed.”
The strongest individual result from the Bearcats at the meet came from the men’s side of the action. Sophomore Luke Miklus christened his second year at BU with a career day in the men’s 6K, crossing the line in 20:01.7 to bring home an 11th-place finish in the 50-runner field. This marked an 11-place improvement over the sophomore’s previous best career finish for BU at last fall’s Canisius Alumni Classic.
“[Miklus] was able to plug in more training over this summer,” Acuff said. “His volume was a little higher, and I think that has significantly paid off for him. And I think he’s more confident mentally going into his sophomore year from his freshman year. It was challenging his freshman year just adjusting to the collegiate level of competition, but I think he feels a lot more comfortable.”
Further down the men’s timesheet was a quartet of Bearcats finishing right alongside one another. Leading this breakaway with a time of 20:13.3 was junior Andrew Rosenblatt who finished in 15th place. Behind him was freshman Bobby Mayclim in 16th with a time of 20:19.2, graduate student Asa Friedrich in 17th with a time of 20:20.6 and junior Austin Wefer in 18th with a time of 20:22.7.
On the women’s side of the action, without its top runners, BU was unable to place a competitor inside the top 20. Just narrowly missing out on this group was freshman Alicia DeFilippis, whose 19:48.9 in the women’s 5K left her to settle for a 22nd-place collegiate debut. Also placing in the top 40 finishers with a pace of 20:27.3 was fellow freshman Madeline Jensen in 32nd, as well as the tandem of sophomore Sarah Guyette and junior Nicole Conklin in 37th and 38th with respective times of 20:36.3 and 20:39.3.
“We have a lot of runners who are at a very similar fitness level,” Acuff said. “So it helps us with workouts and training. It’ll help in competition too. You can’t expect all of your team to necessarily have everyone run a great race every time you step on the course. So having that depth in similar fitness levels, I think we’ve got that on both the men’s and the women’s sides this year and I fully hope that it really pays off for us.”
Binghamton will return to action on Sept. 13 at the Iona Meet of Champions, with top runners like fifth-year Josh Stone and junior Sydney Leitner slated to make their season debuts. First race is set for 10 a.m. at Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx, New York.