Aidan Tooker finishes as runner-up at NCAA Pre-Nationals meet

Aidan Tooker missed first place by half a second, as he placed runner-up at the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wisconsin. The men’s team finished third on the day with 195 points, trailing only Washington in second and BYU in first.

On the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course, Tooker ran the meet in 23:54.9, only bested by BYU’s Rory Linkletter (23:54.4), who ensured his and BYU’s second consecutive first place finish at Pre-Nationals.

At the 6-kilometer mark, Tooker was in ninth place, but a late surge helped him overtake BYU’s Conner Mantz and San Francisco’s Chris Olley, who had lead for much of the 8-kilometer race.

Tooker’s second place finish was an improvement on his performance last year in Madison, when his 23:53.2 finish was good for 10th place and his first career top-10 finish at a major meet.

Elsewhere for the No. 8 ranked Orange, sophomore Noah Affolder (24:26.3) and senior Iliass Aouani (24:31.8) placed within the top-50.

Earlier in the day, the Syracuse women’s team enjoyed a strong finish in its 6K race to place eighth with 269 points.

Freshman Laura Dickinson (20:52.2) and redshirt sophomore Rachel Bonner (20:55.7) led the Orange placing 29th and 33rd, respectively.

Next up for Syracuse is the John Reif Memorial on Oct. 19 in Ithaca, New York.