CLINTON, NY -- The Houghton cross country teams traveled to Hamilton College on Saturday for their second short course invitational of the season. This time, the women raced 4,000m and the men 5,000m. The Highlanders have seen relatively good results at this meet over the last couple of years, and this year was a big step forward. The Empire 8 teams represented were Utica, Nazareth, and St. John Fisher. Other top regional teams were host Hamilton, St. Lawrence, and DII Roberts Wesleyan. The women averaged 16:26 and 16:17 for their top 5 average the last two years. On Saturday, the women blasted a 15:17 top 5 average to finish just one point behind St. Lawrence, 13 points behind perennial top five regional finisher Hamilton, and bested Utica, Nazareth, and St. John Fisher by significant margins. The men averaged 16:03 in 2023, the year they won the Empire 8 title, and the best team in program history. On Saturday, the squad got eerily close to that mark with a 16:14 top 5 average. The men narrowly beat St. John Fisher and Nazareth, but lost to Utica by just 6 points. The 8 point proximity of Houghton, Nazareth, and Utica will be a fun storyline to follow throughout the season.
From an individual standpoint, freshman
Amy Collins continued to assert herself on the scene with a 5th place finish amongst an impressive field. She was the 2nd Empire 8 runner to cross the line. Her time was 14:51 (5:58 per mile).
Emberlynn Nolt was next to cross the line in 8th place, and a time of 15:04 (6:04 per mile). Next for the Highlanders was senior
Noelle Linenfelser in 12th place with a time of 15:14 (6:07 per mile).
Amos Bixler unleashed a furious final kilometer to take 5th place in the race, which featured the DIII National Champion in the mile, Nicholas Lyndaker. Bixler was just 13 seconds behind Lyndaker, and finished just .2 seconds ahead of Utica's Bennett Melita, who was an NCAA Qualifer in 2024. Bixler's time was 15:28 (4:58 per mile) for the 5,000m distance. Senior
Ben Allen finished quite well at 25th in the race with a time of 16:06 (5:11 per mile). A slew of Highlanders followed for a tightly packed top 7 runners, all under 16:48. This marks for the first time that seven Highlanders have run under 17:00 for a 5,000m xc race.
Coach Hager spoke after the meet, "I mean, I think we may have had 4-5 runners out of the 31 who raced today that did not set a personal best mark. As people were finishing, Coach Tabby and I were just constantly wow'd by the times. I think we had several people (
Risa Palmer,
Connor Little,
Evan Geer,
Rachael Smith, etc.) set personal bests by over 70 seconds. If you're not familiar with racing or these distances....that's a massive improvement. Our message in the hotel before we left in the morning was this: 1. Take joy in the Lord today. 2. Show up for your team. These are simple messages, but in our sport, the focus on the individual can creep in and creep in until you leave a meet realizing that most were focused on their own performance. This team has done really well at combating that in our first two meets. If we can keep that up, it'll continue to be a special season. I do believe that both the men and women showed that they are top 10 squads in the region today."
The teams will travel next to Roberts Wesleyan on 9/27 to compete in the Harry F. Anderson Invitational.
