Home of the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers

The men’s cross country team traveled to the Saratoga State Park, N.Y. to participate in the 2002 Saratoga Invitational hosted by Union College. The Tigers finished third out of 12 teams, behind Ithaca College and St. Lawrence University, both ranked among the top 15 teams in the nation.

Freshman runner Matt Fortin has consistently been improving his times over the first six meets of the 2002 cross country season. In Fortin’s first race as a Tiger, he ran a respectable time of 29:23 over the eight kilometer course and was the ninth RIT athlete to cross the finish line. After improving his time by two minutes and 23 seconds over six races, Fortin is currently the number three runner, and finished less than one second behind freshman Jesse Williamson at the Saratoga Invitational, running the eight kilometer course in 27:00 and capturing 20th place.

“Matt is really running some great times and has found his pace in the eight kilometer race. I was happy with his time [at the Saratoga Invitational], but really would have liked to have seen him run one second faster, breaking 27 minute barrier” noted Tigers coach Dave Warth.

Fortin will look to challenge more RIT runners at the NYSCTC Championships on Nov. 9 at 11 a.m.