MARCY, N.Y. – The SUNY Poly men's and women's cross country teams hosted 9th Annual SUNY Poly Invitational Short Course meet this past weekend. 13 men's teams and 11 women's teams came out to compete on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in upstate New York. The Wildcat men had a good showing finishing fourth overall with a total of 135 points and the women finished 11th with 323 points.
For the men, sophomore captain Oliver Crain (Syracuse, N.Y. / Corcoran H.S.) led the Cats' finishing 12th overall with a time of 20:30.6 in the 6k. Greg Bogdan (Broadalbin, N.Y. / Broadalbin-Perth H.S.) and Derek Smith (Rochester, N.Y. / Greece Arcadia H.S.) finished 28th and 29th overall finishing less than one second apart. Bogdan with a time of 21:26.9 and Smith with a time of 21:27.4. The men's course record set by SUNY Poly's Derek Struck in 2013 (19:39) was broken by MVCC's Zakaria Djuma. Djuma, the freshman, finished with a time of 18:50.8.
For the women, junior captain Sarah Murphy (Utica, N.Y. / Notre Dame Jr./Sr.) finished 76th overall with a time of 25:23.2. Freshman Caley Grasso (Rensselaer, N.Y. / Columbia HS)finished the race in 26:23.2 and senior Kiersten Albertson (Kirkville, N.Y. / East Syracuse Minoa HS) finished with a time of 26:45.7. The winner of the women's 5k race was Jessica Monzyk; a junior from Albany CPHS with a time of 19:53.6.
Both Wildcat cross country teams will be back in action on September 12th at 11:00 when they travel to Cobleskill to run in the 2015 Steven A. Warde Invitational.