Fredonia will have two runners in the NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country championship race, and the first woman since 2002 in the NCAA national women’s race, on Saturday in Wisconsin.
A pair of seniors, Collin Mulcahy (Batavia) and Kyle Collins (Suffern), will be part of the national field at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wis., after finishing in the top 10 at the Nov. 14 NCAA Atlantic Regional.
Mulcahy finished eighth while Collins was ninth in a field of 288 runners over the 8,000-meter Letchworth State Park layout. They were separated by 2.1 seconds – Collins covering the distance in 25:33.5 and Collins in 25:35.6.
Rounding out Fredonia's top five were junior Cody Martini (Palmyra) in 74th, junior Bobby Cooper (Macedon) in 108th, and freshman Ethan Francis (Dunkirk) in 109th. Displacement runners were freshman Joe Northup (Waterloo, N.Y.) in 116th and sophomore Merlin Joseph Jr. (Binghamton) in 187th.
The Blue Devils men finished 11th out of 41 teams.
Collins burst out quickly – he was eighth after 2,000 meters – and hung on to his positioning throughout, while Mulcahy got off to a slightly slower start. He was 16th after the first 2,000 meters and 11th at the 5K mark. He passed the 6,600-meter mark in eighth and held his ground the rest of the way.
It's the first time the university will send more than one runner to the men’s NCAA championship meet since1992, when Fredonia had a full team contingent and finished 10th in the country
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| Laura Morrison at the 2015 NCAA Atlantic Regional. |
In the women's race, Fredonia's Laura Morrison (Wethersfield, Conn.) never ran collegiate cross country until this fall. In just one season, she has put her name in the Fredonia record book.
An academic senior, Morrison finished 10th in the Nov. 14 Atlantic Regional at Letchworth. That earned her a spot in the NCAA national race, also at Lake Breeze Golf Course, which makes her the first Fredonia female in the NCAA race since Morgan Burrows in 2002.
Morrison ran the 8,000 meters in 22:18.8.
The women Blue Devils finished 11th out of 36 teams in the regional. In addition to Morrison, senior Lauren Kotas (Lancaster, N.Y.) was 54th, junior Bonnie Binggeli (Walworth) 80th, freshman Hannah Kurbs (Lockport) 93rd, and freshman Stephanie Wojnowski (Rochester, N.Y.) 100th to complete Fredonia's scoring.
A pair of juniors, Julia Johnson (Baldwinsville) and junior Kara Hall (Bergen), finished 102nd and 109th, respectively. There were 265 finishers.
Morrison's path to All-Regional success – the top 35 finishers are accorded the honor – was a case of picking up steam the longer the race went. She was 29th after 2,000 meters and 15th after 5,000 meters. She moved up five more spots over the final 1K.
