RESULTS

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - It was a great day for the Ithaca College men's cross country team as they previewed the regional championship course at Genesee Valley Park at the Yellowjacket XC Invitational hosted by the University of Rochester. The Bombers competed with some of the top teams in the Niagara Region and took home multiple personal bests and a 5th place finish in their first 8k race of the season.
 
The Bombers were led by junior Toag Wolf who broke the 26-minute barrier for the first time with a 25:59.3. After they struggled at this meet last season where they did not finish, they bounced back in resounding fashion, running a top 50 8k time in program history and was the Bombers only top 20 finisher, taking home a coveted meet t-shirt. 
 
Following Wolf was senior Ben Buffone who ran 26:16.9 for 22nd place overall. This was a 10 second improvement from this meet last season for Buffone who has goals of earning an individual bid to the NCAA National XC Championships later this season. 
 
Coming up third for the Bombers was junior Elliott Painting who continued the theme improvement from last season. Painting finished 36th overall with a time of 26:29.5 improved by nearly three minutes from this meet last season and 102 places overall. 
 
First-year Felix Farrugia continued his electric start to his collegiate career. He ran 26:37.1 for 45th place, negative splitting every 2,000 meter split, demonstrating a lot of room for improvement later on in the season. The Bomber's scorers were rounded out by senior Aidan Loughlin who ran a 60 second 8k personal best with a 26:57.3 for 50th place. Loughlin ran almost three minutes slower last fall at this meet and continues to look to be a scoring threat for the Bombers come postseason. 
 
Overall, the Bombers had six personal bests and some great debuts from their first-years over the 8k distance. Some other notable improvements are junior Connor McGeehan (27:26.1) and sophomore Dominic Agostinelli (27:39.3). They both ran north of 31 minutes last fall and look like new runners this season with new levels of fitness.
 
No. 3 SUNY Geneseo took home the team title with 61 points despite resting their top runners. They narrowly beat out Rochester Institute of Technology who scored 68 points for second.
 
The Bombers will be back in action in two weeks when they travel to the Commonwealth to race teams across multiple divisions at the Lehigh University Paul Short run.