MARCY, N.Y. – Coming into Saturday's race, Derek Struck (Knox, N.Y. / Berne-Knox-Westerlo) had some competition according to SUNYIT Men's Cross Country Coach Bill Tylutki.
"We have 7 guys that can all compete for the top 5," said Tylutki before the season, "even Derek Struck has some competition."
That competition must have been just the motivation the sophomore needed. After winning the 6k meet last year, setting a course record in the process, Struck repeated as champion on Saturday with a scorching time of 19 minutes, 39 seconds – beating his record last year by almost 15 seconds.
The second-place finisher? Jonathan Cleveland of SUNY ESF. 12 seconds later.
A race like that has to feel good, right?
"Last year I had more fun than this year," said Struck. "This one was a lot harder, the mud was a lot more of a factor than last year."
The deadpan Struck had everyone fooled, however, finishing for the second straight year without another runner in sight.
SUNY ESF would take the overall title for the men on the day, garnering 2nd through 4th place and finishing with 33 points, while Utica College came in second with 65 points, just ahead of SUNYIT with 70.
Of course, the real story around Marcy on the day was the performance of the SUNYIT team as a whole. Senior Dylan Parry (Voorheesville, N.Y. / Voorheesville) had done nothing but improve since joining the team four years ago, and Saturday was no different as the 6-foot runner turned in a SUNYIT Invitational career-best of 20 minutes, 8 seconds. The tally was good for 5th place overall, and Parry dusted his last year's time by over 23 seconds.
SUNYIT's third finisher offered another great story, as Jordan Sirtoli (West Winfield, N.Y. / Mount Markham), a graduate student at SUNYIT, completed his first collegiate race. The 5-foot-7 runner hadn't raced since high school, but turned in a time of 20 minutes, 26 seconds, good for 11th place.
Rounding out the scoring five for the Wildcats were Sean McCarthy (Selden, N.Y. / Centereach) and Joseph Acey (Forestport, N.Y. / Adirondack) who finished in 21st and 32nd places respectively.
For videos of today's event, head to our page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SUNYITWildcats
Full race results are available at http://tnttiming.com/results/
