HOUGHTON, NY – The Empire 8 Cross Country Championships were hosted by Houghton University on Saturday. Eleven teams took to the starting line on a cool, and beautiful late Fall day. The Houghton men won the Empire 8 Championship a year ago. Since then, SUNY Geneseo (#1 in Region, #5 in NCAA) and SUNY Brockport (#2 in Region) joined the Empire 8 Conference. The Highlanders knew they'd find themselves in a tight team battle with Nazareth University for third. This match up did not disappoint. At the 2.1 kilometer mark, the Highlanders trailed Nazareth by a significant 59 points. They narrowed the gap to 29 points by the 5 kilometer mark. In the last 3 kilometers, Ben Allen, James Eustace, and Sam Lyon surged through the field to finish in a fury. At the finish, the loading of the results seemed to take forever. When they finally were posted, Houghton had edged Nazareth by just 1 point for 3^rd place. En route to this finish, the Houghton men finished with a top 5 average of 26:08, which is the #2 time in program history.
 
COACHES CORNER
"When I saw that the front of the field came through the mile in 4:45, I knew this was going to be a fast and stressful race. We talked beforehand that racing smart doesn't mean racing slow. I told our guys to ignore what was happening around them, and use the biofeedback that they'd learned throughout the year to run their race. They did just this. It doesn't mean it wasn't very nerve-racking for me in the middle, but when I saw Ben Allen leading that pack of guys with such confidence, I knew we had a chance. I also have to tip my hat to freshman Salim Ford. He ran a gutsy race and we needed all of his 39 second personal best to clip Nazareth. All of our guys that toed the line ran a season's best and 10 of them ran a lifetime best 8,000 meter time. I couldn't be more proud of how the guys performed today," commented Coach Hager.
 
Top 7 Results (144 runners)
20^th Amos Bixler – 25:35.7
31^st Ben Allen – 26:03.4
34^th James Eustace – 26:06.7
39^th Sam Lyon – 26:16.9
53^rd Salim Ford – 26:38.8
63^rd Luke Ellis – 27:12.1
67^th Connor Little – 27:28.5
 
The Highlanders will race their top 7 athletes at the NCAA Niagara Regional Championships on 11/16 hosted by SUNY Fredonia.