ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's cross country team celebrated its 2012 season on Dec. 5 with a year-end banquet. The Most Valuable Runner and Most Improved Runner awards were presented and 2013 captains were announced.

Senior Nathan Bickell earned Most Valuable Runner accolades, while freshmen Sawyer Hitchcock and Stephen Gomez shared the Most Improved Runner award. Junior Sam Horwath and sophomore Dennis Ryan were selected 2013 captains.

Bickell led the Bombers to their third straight Empire 8 championship and was named Empire 8 Runner of the Year. He crossed the finish line first in 26:11.44 at the Empire 8 Championships to earn Runner of the Meet honors and First Team All-Empire 8 nods. A week later, he ran to a 15th-place finish at the NCAA Regionals with a 25:57.40 finish. Bickell capped his career with an individual bid to the NCAA Championships where he knocked five seconds off his career-best time to finish 127th out of 280 runners in 25:52.80.

Hitchcock was the top rookie at the conference championship with a sixth-place finish of 26:49.46. He was later named Empire 8 Rookie of the Year. He collected all-region honors with a 25th-place finish at the Atlantic Region meet, earning an at-large individual bid to the NCAA Championships. Hitchcock clocked his career-best eight-kilometer time of 26:01.50 to place 149th.

Gomez recorded All-Empire 8 Second-Team accolades at the conference championships with a 14th-place finish of 27:29.93 on the eight-kilometer course, his season-best performance.

Horwath and Ryan each earned Empire 8 Second-Team recognition. Horwath placed 13th and Ryan 10th. The two ran in the Bombers' top-seven at the NCAA Atlantic Region Championships to help Ithaca to a seventh-place finish out of 44 teams.