Men's Cross Country | 7/31/2017 8:55:00 AM
ROCHESTER, NY – Head Coach
David Warth announced the 2017 RIT
men's cross country season schedule on Monday, July 31. The Tigers will compete in seven regular season meets and will look to qualify for their first NCAA Championship berth since the 2009 season.
The Tigers will open the season with three meets in September, heading to the Highlander Short Course Twilight Invitational hosted by Houghton College on Sept. 1, before heading to Rowan University in New Jersey for the Bill Fritz Invitational on Sept. 16. On Sept. 23, the Tigers make the quick drive to Roberts Wesleyan College for the Harry F. Anderson Invitational.
After a week off to begin October, the Tigers head back to Houghton for the NCAA Atlantic Region preview on Oct. 7, which should attract several of the top teams in the area. The following weekend, RIT will celebrate Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend with a meet at nearby Genesee Valley Park as part of the University of Rochester's Yellowjacket Invitational on Oct. 14. On Oct. 28, RIT will look for its first Liberty League Championship as the league holds its annual title meet, this year at Vassar Farm on the campus of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
The Tigers will take a week off in early November before heading back to Houghton for the NCAA Atlantic Region Championship on Nov. 11. RIT will look to earn a top-five team finish and a potential berth into the NCAA Championship, which will take place at Principia College's North Farm Course in Elsah, Ill. on Nov. 18.
"We have a really strong schedule," said Warth, who enters his 21st season at RIT. "Our main focus is the Liberty League Championship at Vassar, while all three meets at Houghton will be very important for us as the season progresses."
The Tigers finished fourth at the 2016 Liberty League Championship and 11th at the NCAA Regional Championship. RIT returns 2016 All-American
James Bailey (Danvers, MA/Danvers), while men's track and field All-American Otto Kingstedt joins the Tigers in 2017. That duo, along with a host of talented returning veterans and returners, could vault RIT to national prominence.
