The NCAA D1-D2-D3 divisions all wrapped up the year at Nationals on Saturday, November 21st in historic fashion, at least for a NY school and its runners. Syracuse won its second national championship and first in 64 years as three Orange runners from NY made big contributions during a big year for the team as it knocked off top-ranked Colorado by 9 points. Martin Hehir captured a top-10 finish as the third guy in for his team in 9th place, Philo Germano made up his team's late-stage deficit by passing 14 runners in the last 2K of the 10K race, and Dan Lennon was the team's 6th man on the day. It was the first national championship for a team from the East in more than four decades, and another NY based school Iona finished in at 5th. Joining Hehir near the top of the leaderboard was Penn's Thomas Awad in 14th place as he led his team to 24th at Louisville.
The action on the women's side of D1 was a little less explosive for NY, but Lauren Mullins and Katie Lembo got to celebrate a strong 4th place finish for their Providence Friars team. The Syracuse women were also in the action with a 12th-place finish, and Shaylyn Tuite led all NY runners with a 55th place. Princeton captain Emily De La Bruyere had to miss Nationals for a very big interview.
The D2 Nationals always have much lighter action for NY runners, but 13 NY women were running in Joplin, MO and they were led by Daemen's Mackenzie Donahue who took 69th as an at-large selection. Elizabeth Valento led the Roberts Wesleyan team with an 83rd, Emma Sullivan was 125th for 21st-place Edinboro, and Kristen Borriello and Meaghan Ventarola were the top runners for St. Thomas Aquinas. The top D2 finish on the day was over on the guys' side as Edinboro's Elliott Martynkiewicz cracked the top 20 with a 19th place for his 24th-place team.
The D3 championship supplied the big majority of the NY runners at Nationals as 47 women and 18 men competed in the races in Oshkosh, WI. SUNY Geneseo had a huge day taking 2nd in the women's race behind Williams, while the guys were 3rd behind Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Williams. But it was the Ephs of Williams who contributed two more spots for NY runners on a national championship team as Hannah Cole led her team to its first title in 11 years with a 4th, and Victoria Kingham was the second Eph in at 11th. Cole fought off her ex Honeoye Falls-Lima teammate Ruth Steinke of Carleton at the finish, but Williams had a commanding 98 point margin over 2nd-place SUNY Geneseo. The Blue Knights were led by top-40 finishes from Jackie Huben and Sara Rosenzweig and used a pack attack to overcome three other teams for the runner-up spot. RPI's Jaime Lord and SUNY Oneonta's Alyssa Drapeau and Mary-Kate Bida also ran to top-25 finishes, and both SUNY Oneonta at 6th and RPI at 9th had top-10 team finishes.
The D3 action for the NY men was dominated by 3rd-place SUNY Geneseo, who had the top 5 finishes by state guys as Isaac Garcia-Cassani broke into the top 10 at 8th, Brendan Wortner was 49th, Travis Briggs was 61st, Sean Fischer was 71st, and Alfredo Mazzuca was 83rd. The top at-large runners for NY were Cortland State's Mitchell Ryan at 109 and Fredonia State's Kyle Collins at 110.
I count an even 100 NY runners in the D1-D2-D3 Nationals races at 17-18-65, but it's possible that some got overlooked, so please send a message or comment pointing out any others who got missed. It was truly a banner year for NY at a time when much of the action at the top is being highly impacted by international runners. Cheers to all and even more sparkling year in 2016.
And in case you were wondering about Syracuse's baseball bat. No, they were not using it on the Buffaloes, but they were running in the home of the Louisville Slugger.
| Division | Stage | Who | Who | Status | Location | Date |
| NCAA D1 | Regionals | Done | ||||
| Nationals | Done | Louisville, KY | Nov. 21 | |||
| NCAA D2 | Regionals | Done | ||||
| Nationals | Done | Joplin, MO | Nov. 21 | |||
| NCAA D3 | Regionals | Done | ||||
| Nationals | Done |
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 | ||