After blazing the trails here in New York for one to six years, they run off to college to do battle for teams with strange names like the Orange, Big Red, Hoyas, Blue Knights, Saints, and Fighting Scots instead of our standard NY HS names like Jugglers, Peglegs, Hillbillies, Stoners, Flaming Arrows, and Flying Dutchmen. Some of these runners set their sights on trying to earn a ticket to a national championship meet, and though only a few will make it either with a qualifying team or as at-large selections, they all give it their best.
For a lucky few, there is an added bonus at the end of it all -- a national championship trophy. Already this year NY runners have begun to rack up some of those top awards. The National Junior College Athletic Association held its national championship at Holyoke Community College on November 7 and the Sharks of the Suffolk Community College's women's team clamped their jaws on the school's first national title. The winner of the men's NJCAA D3 race is a guy out of Proctor HS, Zakaria Djouma of Mohawk Valley CC, and he's off to great things ahead. And though the winner of the women's United States Collegiate Athletic Association race is strictly speaking from Ireland, Aine McMorrow of SUNY Canton doesn't really then have a state to call her own, so we'll claim her for NY and the Canton north country. The National Christian Colleges Athletic Association had its championship on November 14, and though the defending NCCAA D1 champ Roberts Wesleyan women were not able to defend their title due to a commitment to the NCAA D2 championship, the Redhawks guys took 2nd.
On November 7, the NCAA D2 schools held their regional meets, and I count 4 guys and 13 women from NY who are heading to Nationals on November 21 in Joplin, MO. The NCAA D1 regionals had some great action last weekend with the Syracuse men taking 1st and the women 2nd in the Northeast regional to send likely a total of 5 NY runners to Nationals. The Providence women won the Northeast regional and contributed two NY runners to Nationals. A total of 16 NY runners likely are running in the D1 Nationals, and they will be led on the men's side by Duke's Shaun Thompson who took 2nd in the Southeast regional and on the women's side by Princeton's Emily De La Bruyere who was runner-up in the Mid Atlantic regional and will be accompanied by her Tiger teammates.
A special section has to be reserved for the D3 action simply because each year it provides the bulk of the NY runners at Nationals. After a huge day in the women's Atlantic regional where 6 NY-based schools qualified for Nationals, I count 47 D3 women's runners and 17 NY men (plus a Hamilton guy from NY who went to school in MA) for a tally of 64 who are likely heading to Nationals from all the regionals. SUNY Geneseo swept the titles in the Atlantic regional and contributed 14 NY runners for Nationals, led on the guy's side by Atlantic regional champ Isaac Garcia-Cassani, and the St. Lawrence guys also qualified with two NY runners, while Fredonia State contributed two at-large guys. The six NY schools qualifying from the women's Atlantic regional included SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Oneonta, RPI, St. Lawrence, Rochester, and RIT, and though there were many high-placing NY runners there, none were higher than winner Megan Kellogg of St. Lawrence. Another winner at a more distant regional was Carleton's Ruth Steinke, who was 1st in the Central regional, and Williams's Hannah Cole was very close with a 2nd in the New England regional.
All three NCAA divisions will be holding their national championships on Saturday, Nov. 21 this year. Syracuse is ranked #2 on the men's D1 side, and a women's Providence team with memorable names like Mullins and Lembo on it is ranked #4, so those are likely the best chances for a team championship for an NY runner in D1. In D3 the best chance seems to rest with Hannah Cole and her #2 ranked Williams team. Stay tuned as we follow the paths of the NY college runners into Nationals, and if we overlook one of the NY runners who does get a Nationals ticket (sometimes also they are held out of regionals but run for their team at nationals), please drop us a note and we'll correct the omission immediately.
| Division | Stage | Who | Who | Status | Location | Date |
| NCAA D1 | Regionals | Done | ||||
| Nationals | Louisville, KY | Nov. 21 | ||||
| NCAA D2 | Regionals | Done | ||||
| Nationals | Joplin, MO | Nov. 21 | ||||
| NCAA D3 | Regionals | Done | ||||
| Nationals | Oshkosh, WI | Nov. 21 | ||||
| USCAA | Nationals | Done | Lakeland, FL | Nov. 7 | ||
| NJCAA - D3 | Nationals | Done | Westfield, MA | Nov. 7 | ||
| NCCAA - D1 | Nationals | Done | Houghton, NY | Nov. 14 | ||