First Team All Conference (L to R: 7th place to 1st)
Ithaca Men's Cross Country Wins Empire 8 Championship; Bickell Takes Individual Title
Championship Website
RESULTS
PHOTO GALLERY
The Ithaca men’s cross country team had a dominant showing at the 2012 Empire 8 Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday at Saratoga Spa State Park, winning its sixth conference title in program history by boasting seven of the top 15 individual finishes.
The Bombers collected 32 points in winning their third straight team title. Stevens Institute of Technology boasted runner-up honors (73 points), while Utica came in third (81 points). Hartwick (fourth, 109), Nazareth (fifth, 120), St. John Fisher (sixth, 141), Houghton (seventh, 168) and Alfred (eighth, 224) rounded out the remainder of the team standings.
Senior Nathan Bickell of Ithaca clocked the top time in the men’s 8K race, checking in at 26:11.44. Bickell’s win marks the fifth time an Ithaca student-athlete has won individual honors.
Michael Cahill of Stevens navigated the course in a second-place 26:16.96, and Morgan Payne of Utica finished third in 26:24.70. David Geary of Ithaca and Peter Fekete of Nazareth placed fourth and fifth with respective times of 26:36.04 and 26:38.29. Freshman Sawyer Hitchcock of Ithaca took sixth (26:49.49) and Tom Cunningham of Stevens finished seventh (27:03.24) to round out the First-Team All-Empire 8 recipients.
The next three runners sprinted to the finish line to claim their place and were separated by four seconds. The All-Conference Second Team included John Stuligross of Hartwick (eighth, 27:12.99), Tim McGowan of Houghton (ninth, 27:13.49), Dennis Ryan of Ithaca (tenth, 27:16.61), Billy Savage of Ithaca (11th, 27:25.06), Hunter Padgett of Utica (12th, 27:27.20), Samuel Horwath of Ithaca (13th, 27:28.29), Stephen Gomez of Ithaca (14th, 27:29.93) and Louie Stengel of Stevens (15th, 27:35.83).
First-Team All-Empire 8 honors went to those who placed first through seventh, while Second-Team All-Empire 8 honors went to those who placed eighth through 15th.
Empire 8 teams will return to the course on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the NCAA Atlantic Region Championships hosted by Rochester.