RESULTS

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Ithaca College men's cross country team took on some of the top teams in the Niagara Region at the Rochester Yellowjacket XC Invitational at Genesse Valley Park hosted by the University of Rochester. In their first 8k race of the season, the women finished fifth overall out of 17 teams despite missing some major contributors due to injuries and illness. 

The Bombers were led by senior captain Elliott Painting, who tied his personal best, running 25:54. Painting moved up 39 places from 2k to 8k, and closed his last 2k in 6:15. Painting finished 16^th overall, taking home a coveted meet t-shirt that the top 20 individual finishers receive. 

The Bombers were followed up by sophomore Felix Farrugia. Farrugia, who had been dealing with a knee injury during the week, ran conservatively at the start, working into the race and moving up 27 spots from 2k to the finish en route to 40^th overall in a time of 26:33.

He was followed by junior Colin Lesher who ran 27:09 for 67^th place. Lesher followed a similar race plan to Painting and Farrugia, moving up 38 spots from 2k to the finish, including an impressive 22-place jump from 2k to 4k.

Rounding out the scorers for the Bombers were sophomores Luke Ferrer and Brady Wortmann. Both demonstrated a massive improvement from last season. Ferrer ran 27:13, 41 seconds faster than he did at this meet last season. Wortmann came through the 8k in 27:27, nearly a full minute personal best and an over two-minute improvement from his time at Yellowjacket last fall. 

Other notable performances included sophomore Dylan Tripp, who despite coming off a recent stretch of illness that caused him to miss the previous meet, ran 27:45, a nearly 90-second improvement from his Yellowjacket time from last fall. First-year Nevan Walsh was the top freshman performer for the Bombers, running 28:19, closing in 6:51 over the final 2k. This is only Walsh's second cross country season ever, after playing football in the fall season for the first three years of his high school career. 

SUNY Geneseo was the dominate performer in the men's race. Senior Collin Brown took home the individual title in a time of 25:14, and the team scored an impressive 24 points despite resting their two All-American runners. 

The Bombers will be back in action in two weeks on Friday, October 2^nd when they travel to SUNY Fredonia to preview the regionals course at the 2026 Fredonia Kara Hall Memorial Run.