Men's Cross Country | 11/11/2017 12:46:00 PM

HOUGHTON, NY – The RIT men's cross country team finished third out of 42 teams at the 2017 NCAA Atlantic Region Championship held at Field of Dreams Park on the campus of chilly Houghton College on Saturday morning. Four Tigers earned All-Atlantic Region honors by recording top-35 individual finishes.
 
RIT, who entered the race ranked seventh in the USTFCCCA Atlantic Region poll, finished with a team score of 124 points. Geneseo, ranked fourth nationally, won its third straight NCAA Atlantic Region Championship, finishing with 61 points. Liberty League rival Rensselaer, ranked eighth nationally, was second with 98 points. The Tigers defeated nationally-ranked squads St. Lawrence and Rowan.
 
Grant O'Connor of Rensselaer won the Atlantic Region individual title with a time of 24:14, six seconds ahead of runner-up Issac Garcia-Cassani of Geneseo.
 
RIT junior Otto Kingstedt (Stockholm, Sweden/Cybergymnasiet) and senior James Bailey (Danvers, MA/Danvers) led the way for the Tigers, finishing sixth and seventh overall, respectively. Both were in the lead pack from the start. Bailey held a slight lead at the 3,600-meter mark, while Kingstedt was third after 5,000-meters. Both men broke 25 minutes, as Kingstedt would cross the finish line in a time of 24:49.4, while Bailey was right behind in 24:58.6 to earn his third consecutive All-Region honor. Kingstedt recorded his fifth top-five finish of the season.
 
Junior Evan Feigel (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) earned his first All-Region honor, placing 19th overall in 25:10.5, which shattered his previous career-best by nearly a full minute.  Senior John Mooney (Norwich, NY/Norwich) also earned All-Region accolades with a 34th place finish. He crossed the finish line in a personal-best time of 25:34.8, surpassing his previous best by 18 seconds.
 
Sophomore Reid Kovacs (Palo Alto, CA/Henry M. Gunn) also earned points for the Tigers, placing 58th overall with a time of 25:56.1. Junior Dan Jones (Lockport, NY/Lockport) was 96th with a personal-best time of 26:21.9 and sophomore Andrew Chabot (Campton, NH/Plymouth Regional) crossed the finish line 116th overall in 26:41.1.
 
The Tigers came out roaring from the start, holding the team lead after the first checkpoint, never dropping below third overall. Today's finish was RIT's best at the NCAA Atlantic Region Championships since placing third in 2006. The last RIT team to make the NCAA Championship was in 2009.
 
"Today's race was far and away the best the team effort I've seen from an RIT team in any race, let alone a regional meet in my 21 years of coaching," said RIT head coach David Warth. "They are an amazing bunch of guys. It was a tremendous effort across the board from all seven runners and I could not be any prouder of this group."
 
Geneseo and Rensselaer, the top two team finishers from today's race, automatically qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday, Nov. 18 at Principia North Farm Course Park in Elsah, IL.  Sixteen other at-large bids will be awarded from the nation's eight total regions. RIT's third-place finish gives them a great chance at an at-large berth. In addition, the top seven individual finishers from each region not on one of the team qualifiers will earn an invitation to the national championships. The announcement of NCAA Championship teams and individuals will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 12.