By Michael Purtell
Geneseo — winner of every single SUNYAC men’s cross country Championship since 2014 and every women’s cross country championship since 2011 — has left the conference. Plattsburgh now looks to fill the gap the Knights left.
Last season, Plattsburgh’s men finished fifth in the SUNYAC, but after an offseason of retaining most of the team’s top talent, the team has its sights trained on the program’s first chip in the 21st century.
“We were right there with Cortland and Oneonta last year, and they lost a bunch of their guys while we returned a bunch of ours,” senior JT Zimmerman said. “After developing some of the guys who maybe weren’t upfront last year and bringing in some good recruits this year, we think we have a pretty solid chance at that.”
After a 12th place regional finish —the team’s best in over a decade — the men’s team is looking to earn the program its first top-10 finish in regionals since 2011.
The Plattsburgh State women’s cross country team is priming itself to finish in a top three seed in the SUNYAC after finishing fourth last season. With Geneseo’s departure, Oneonta and Cortland are the teams Plattsburgh will look to meet or surpass over the course of the season, junior runner Marissa Colvin said.
Along with Geneseo, Brockport has left the SUNYAC. Canton and Morrisville have slotted into the conference in their absence.
The men’s team has two graduate students on the roster: Michael Brockway and Denali Rodriguez-Garnica.
Six seniors will represent the Cardinals in the trails. Noah Bonesteel, Justin Kumrow, Peter Basile and JT Zimmerman will run for the men, while Sarah Smith and Grace Boyle will run for the women.
Bonesteel was the top runner for the Cardinals last season and earned an Elite 20 award after finishing 22nd at the 2023 SUNYAC championship meet and excelling in the classroom.
Eight juniors make their return to the team, with four on each team. Jack Natali Jr., Lukas McIntosh, Erik Kucera and Nick Gelsomino are on the men’s team and Grace Yarkosky, Ginny Lucchetti, Kaylin Ginter and Colvin are on the women’s team.
Colvin was the only Cardinal runner to earn All-SUNYAC honors last season. She was named to the third team for her 13th place finish at the SUNYAC Championships.
“I’m looking to bring my time down to 22:30 in the 6k,” Colvin said. “I want to place at SUNYAC’s again and compete hard at regionals too.”
Eight sophomores will take to the trails after their first offseason of collegiate training regiments, five men and three women. Graham Richard, Matthais Lauvau, Matt DeJulio, Zander Brown and Nate Alexander will compete on the men’s team and Julia Robinson, Lillian Moran and Grace Estus will compete for the women’s team.
Six runners will make their first-year debut at the Cardinal Classic, four women and two men. Sam Faga and Brody Olden joined the men’s roster and Isabelle Cunningham, Jillian Head, Lexie Rostak and Ella Stuttard round out the women’s roster.
The Cardinals will be building on the strategies put in place by head coach Jordyn Naylon. Last season the team established groups of athletes who were able to pace off of each other at practices, enabling them to push each other in races and systematically overcome other teams in the trails.
“We’re going to be in our pacing groups, and we’re going to work on being smooth through the first half and then working to really turn it on later in the race to see how we close,” Naylon said.
The 42nd annual Cardinal Classic will kick off an exciting season for Plattsburgh State tomorrow, Aug. 31.
The Cardinal Classic will be the only home meet of the cross country season and is a great opportunity for spectators to learn about the intricacies of the sport, Naylon said. Not only will the Cardinals be refining their own strategies, but the differences in approach from other teams will be something for competitors and spectators to study.
“Some people think cross country is just going out and running really hard but there’s a lot of effort and a lot of thought that goes into training and racing in cross country that some people just don’t know.”
