Ithaca Claims MXC Championship; Phillips Individual Champion

10/29/2016 5:49:43 PM

RESULTS

The Ithaca College men's cross country team placed first out of nine teams Saturday at the 2016 Empire 8 Cross Country Championships hosted at Fortin Park in Oneonta, NY. The Bombers recorded 30 points to claim their seventh straight and ninth overall Empire 8 crown. 
 
Ithaca senior Sean Phillips ran with the lead runners for the entire race and broke away in the final stretch to claim the individual E8 title with a time of 25:45.9 over the 8K course.
 
St. John Fisher College, Stevens Institute of Technology and Utica College all placed five student-athletes in the top-25 resulting in a six-point difference between second and fourth place. The Cardinals pulled out the second place team finish with 68 points thanks to two runners in the top-10. Stevens placed third in the team standings with 72 points narrowly edging Utica who totaled 74 points. Houghton College had its best team finish at the E8 Championships with a fifth place score of 168, followed by Alfred (194), Nazareth (198), Hartwick (214) and Elmira (266).

All of Ithaca's top seven runners finished in the top-15 and three finished in the top-5.
 
Phillips was 11 seconds faster than runner-up McQuade Milligan of Fisher. Milligan crossed in 25:56.6 followed by Stevens senior Chris Banko (26:08.1) and Ithaca’s Tim Chappell (26:19.3) and Jesse Capellaro (26:20.5).

Erik Winberg led the way for Utica as he crossed the finish line first for the team. He placed sixth out of a field of 101 total runners in the 8k. Winberg ran an official time of 26:24.9 on the day. Freshman Mitchell Marlow also turned in a strong outing as he placed eighth overall in the race. His time of 26:43 was enough to earn Utica two top 10 finishers at the Empire 8 Championships.

Kevin Dixon of Alfred finished seventh on the 8-kilometer course in 26:28.20.

Ithaca senior Chris Gutierrez finished the course in 26:45.9 to come in ninth overall, and freshman Jeff Montgomery completed Ithaca's top five in 11th with a time of 26:54.9.

Next for Fisher was Charles Collins who placed 10^th overall with a time of 26:49.3, and coming in right behind him was James Felice who crossed finish at 27:06.7, good for 14^th place.