Men's Cross Country | 10/29/2016 3:14:00 PM
GENEVA, NY – Led by senior
Jon Pelzar (Redding, CT/Joel Barlow) and junior
James Bailey (Danvers, MA/Danvers), the RIT men's cross country team finished fourth out of eight teams at the 2016 Liberty League Championship, held at Seneca Lake Park and hosted by Hobart and William Smith Colleges on Saturday. RIT finished with a team score of 89 points.
Rensselaer won the team title with 22 points, snapping St. Lawrence's incredible run of 20 consecutive Liberty League Championships. The Engineers had four of the top five finishers en route to the team title. St. Lawrence was second with 62 team points, while Vassar was right behind in third with 69 points.
Ben Fazio of Rensselaer was the individual winner, completing the 8,000-meter course in a time of 25:22.5, four seconds in front of teammate Grant O'Connor.
Pelzar earned All-Liberty League first team honors as RIT's top finisher, placing sixth overall out of 128 runners in a time of 25:51.0. Bailey garnered All-Liberty League second team accolades by placing eighth overall in 26:02.7. Bailey was an All-Liberty League first team selection in 2015.
Individual finishers in spots one through seven earned All-Liberty League first-team honors while finishers in places eight through 14 were recognized as All-Liberty League second-team honorees.
Senior
Grant Salk (Livermore, CA/Granada) placed 29th overall for the Tigers, completing the 8,000-meter course in a time of 26:46.9. Freshman
Andrew Chabot (Campton, NH/Plymouth Regional) was 33rd in a time of 26:54.1, while senior
John Mooney (Norwich, NY/Norwich) rounded out RIT's top-five scorers, finishing 35th overall in 26:59.9.
Junior Jay Humphries (42nd - 27:17), freshman
Reid Kovacs (Palo Alto, CA/Henry M. Gunn) (43rd – 27:18), and sophomore
Evan Feigel (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) (46th – 27:23.1) rounded out RIT finishers in the top-50 overall.
"I am happy for
Jon Pelzar (Redding, CT/Joel Barlow), who ran a tremendous race," said RIT head coach
David Warth. "I thought we missed a great opportunity to finish second overall as a team, but will be ready for a better showing in two weeks (at the Atlantic Region Championship)."
The Tigers are back in action on Saturday, Nov. 12 at the NCAA Atlantic Region Championship hosted by Rowan University in Sewell, N.J. The meet begins at 11 a.m.
