Men's Cross Country | 11/22/2025 1:11:00 PM
SPARTANBURG, SC - The SUNY Geneseo men's cross country team competed at the NCAA DIII Championship Meet on Saturday, Nov. 22 and came away with a thrilling second place finish, tying the program record for best finish at the NCAA meet. The Knights scored 132 points, beating out Wartburg in third place by just one point.
Ryan Hagan led the way for Geneseo, earning a fourth place finish with a time of 23:52.7. Through the first 6k of the race, Hagan found himself sitting in eighth place, but he put together an impressive finish to move up the leaderboard all the way to fourth place as he crossed the finish line just one second ahead of Wisconsin La-Crosse. This marks Hagan's first cross country All-American honor, after placing 84th last year at 25:04.5.
Joining Hagan as first time cross country All-Americans, were teammates Emerson Comer and Pierce Young placing 15th and 29th, respectively. Comer also put together an impressive final push to the race, moving up three spots in the final kilometer to put up a time of 24:14.5, beating out Colorado College by less than a second. Young was locked in a close battle down the stretch, with five runners finishing within 1.2 seconds of each other. The Arkport, N.Y. native out-kicked North Central and NYU by .5 seconds to finish 29th and help the Knights earn that second-place spot overall.
Anson Butler continued the theme of a strong finish down the stretch, as he also moved up three spots in the final kilometer of the race to take 41st overall, beating out Case Western and MIT by less than a second. Collin Brown rounded out the top five for the Knights by placing 76th overall with a time of 25:04.3. Brown moved up an impressive nine spots in the final kilometer of the race. Connor Hitt and Thomas Blake also competed for the Knights, finishing the race in 25:43.8 and 25:53.4, respectively.
Geneseo men's cross country continued to assert themselves as a perennial powerhouse on the national stage, as they recorded their fourth top-three finish since 2015. The Knights finished third overall in 2015 and 2022, and have now placed second in 2016 and 2025. Additionally, this marks their ninth top-12 finish since the 2015 season.
Houghton standout Amos Bixler and 2023 and 2025 Empire 8 Champion Bennett Melita slso represented the E8 at nationals. Bixler finished 116th overall, crossing the finish line in 25:26.6, while Melita placed 194th in a time of 25:58.7.
Full results from the NCAA Championship Meet