ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Freshman standout Sean Phillips was selected Empire 8 Rookie of the Year announced Friday. The top freshman finisher at the Empire 8 Championship in November, he joins Patrick McGreal (2003), Dan Craighead (2008) and teammate Sawyer Hitchcock (2012) to become the fourth Bomber to claim rookie of the year nods since the conference began sponsoring the sport in 2003.

Phillips was the second Ithaca finisher at the conference meet, helping the Bombers to their fourth straight and sixth overall Empire 8 title, with a fourth-place finish out of 86 runners to tally first-team honors. He placed 10th at the NYSCTC Championship recording second-team all-state nods and has a trio of E8 Runner of the Week honors to his name.

Phillips clocked a team- and season-best 8,000-meter time of 26:03.30 to lead the Bombers to a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Atlantic Region Championship on Nov. 16. He narrowly missed earning an all-region selection with a 38th-place finish out of 275 runners.

Senior captain Sam Horwath is Ithaca's representative on the 2013 Empire 8 Men's Cross Country Sportsman of the Year Team. The Empire 8 emphasizes that "competing with honor and integrity" is an essential component of a student-athlete's experience in conjunction with an institution's educational mission. The sportsman of the year recipients have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportsmen.

Head coach Jim Nichols announced end-of-year team awards Thursday evening at the team banquet.

Phillips was selected most valuable runner, junior Dennis Ryan was named captain for the 2014 campaign and junior Steve Derderian and sophomores Larkin Bohanan and Stephen Gomez shared most improved runner recognition.