GENESEO, NY – The Houghton XC teams competed in a large, inter-regional meet at SUNY Geneseo on Saturday. It was significant because this will be the location of the 2021 NCAA Niagara Regional Championships. Several out of region, nationally ranked programs showed up to take part. These were Middlebury, Otterbein, and St. Lawrence. Several other out of region top 10 regionally ranked teams were Case Western, Messiah, and Suffolk. There were 35 programs represented at the meet, with the Houghton women finishing 20^th, and the men 18^th. Both races had north of 400 runners. All in all, the Highlanders performed well. For the men, it was the 8^th fastest team performance in school history.
 
"I was satisfied with both teams after their races were over. This week, I was looking more for their body posture, facial focus, and other signs of grit during the race. Usually when those line up, so will the times, and relative performances to our usual competitors. I want to shout out to Dylan Beckhorn and Caleb Kasper, specifically. They both fell about 50-80 meters into the race. Caleb got trampled pretty good and has some gnarly spike lacerations in his leg. They both got up immediately and competed hard. It's ultimately not surprising given these guys are born and raised Houghton cross country runners," commented Coach Hager after the meet.
 
The women began the day at 11:00am in a 6,000m race. Rachel Domaracki and Amanda Burrichter took a smart, conservative approach, and moved impressively throughout the field during the race. Rachel was the top Highlander, finishing 57^th, in an impressive field of runners. She ran a personal best time of 24:04. Amanda came shortly after in 24:28, just off her personal best. Tabitha Clark, Alexa Binney, and Ellie Kettinger rounded off Houghton's top 5. Tabitha and Alexa ran big personal best times. "Our women ran really well. There's a couple things we need to happen to really maximize our small squad, but we are well on our way to getting there by our championship races."
 
The men competed in an 8,000m race at 12:00pm. It was sunny and very warm on the airfield. Dave Russo ran with complete poise and focus to finish as the top Highlanders, in 57^th place. He ran a lifetime personal best of 26:23, just outside of a top 10 all-time Houghton performance. Seth Greene also broke the 27:00 mark, coming in at 26:55. Dillon Bell and Dylan Beckhorn ran 3 and 4 for the Highlanders, and really showed great progress. Freshmen duo of JJ Eustace and Sam Lyon were 5 and 6, both cutting 30-60 seconds off their 8k times from two weeks ago. "It was a pretty complete team day for the men. We still have some gaps to close in the coming weeks, but I'm thrilled with where we are at. We gained a bit on Fisher, today. Moral victories in athletics don't always mean a lot, but it felt good to narrow the gap with some time left before E8's."

Results: https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=2430
 
The cross country teams will compete again this coming week, at our home course, in the Highlander Invitational on 10/9. The races begin at 11:00am.