Syracuse men’s cross country finishes 2nd in NCAA Northeast Regional

For the first time in seven years, Syracuse men’s cross country didn’t win the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship.

Both the men’s and women’s teams stumbled at the regional after poor course conditions caused a course change the day before the race. Instead of racing at the Audubon Golf Course, the meet took place on a road course at the host University of Buffalo’s campus. This was the only road race the Orange ran this season.

On the men’s side, redshirt junior Joe Dragon (28:59.6) led the group with a sixth place finish, with redshirt sophomore Nathan Henderson (29:03.6) close behind, in 10th. Redshirt freshman Nathan Lawler (29:21.1), redshirt senior Kevin James (29:21.6), redshirt junior Dominic Hockenbury (29:32.4), and sophomore Matthew Scrape (29:52.2) all finished in the top 50. The team finished second with 86 points, 27 points behind first place Harvard.

Although they didn’t win outright, the No. 18 men topped No. 8 Iona to receive the second automatic bid to the NCAA championships. Iona placed third.

The women fell short once again and failed to finish in the top two, which would secure an automatic bid to the NCAA championships next weekend. 

Graduate student Jordan Jacob (19:42.9) led the Orange and finished 10th overall. Junior Amanda Vestri (19:51.1) led the race for the first 4k of the 6k race, before falling to 13th. Six of the seven Syracuse runners placed in the top 100. The team finished fifth overall with 203 points and will have to wait until Saturday to find out if they received an at large bid. 

The men head to Terre Haute, Indiana next Saturday to compete at the NCAA championships.