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A trio of Siena men ran three of the nine fastest 8K times in program history and a pair of rookies broke the Saints' freshman 8K record as Cross Country shined at the Rider Invitational at Rosedale Park in Pennington, N.J. As a team, the men finished fifth overall while the women placed seventh as the Saints got their first look at the course that will host the MAAC Championship race on Halloween.

In a 10-team field which featured seven MAAC squads, the men finished a solid fourth amongst their conference competitors. Siena, which was predicted to finish eighth according to the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, tied Quinnipiac, projected to finish third, with 111 points. The Bobcats won the tiebreaker for fourth place, 3-2. The Saints finished ahead of Rutgers and well clear of MAAC foes Fairfield, Manhattan and Saint Peter's. The Stags are predicted to place seventh in the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

"We've been focused for a couple of years now on resetting what our measurements of success are in this program," said head coach John Kenworthy. "It used to be that breaking 26 minutes in the 8K or cracking the top-40 at the MAAC Championship was a big deal. But now the scoring men on this team expect to run times and execute races that will allow them to be contenders in the front pack of the MAAC and the entire team's mindset supports that level of expectation. It's obvious when we see times and performances like today that that mental shift has created tangible results on the course."

Junior Nick Cornine raced to a ninth place finish with a time of 25:02.9. Senior Nick Miller came in right behind in 11th (25:03.6) and junior Paolo Fiore (25:08.8) was 17th to round out the Saints' leaders. Cornine, Miller and Fiore's times were the seventh, eighth and ninth fastest 8K times in program history respectively and accounted for the three fastest 8K times by any Siena runners since Charlie Biegel broke the 25-minute mark (24:58) in 1987 at Wagner.

"The men's team has clearly made the jump that we have been looking to for some time now," commented Kenworthy. "Having three finishers in the top-20 against most of the MAAC is certainly new territory for us. Maybe more importantly, following it up with another 10 men under 26:40 shows that we are ready to compete in a highest echelon of the MAAC as a complete team."

Freshmen Jack O'Hara and William Randall each crossed the finish line in 26:11.3, with O'Hara edging Randall at the line. The duo broke the Saints' freshman 8K record of 26:15 held by Shaun VanBuskirk at the Paul Short run last fall. Adam Vaccaro also ran the seventh fastest freshman 8K time in program history, crossing the line in 26:28.7.

"Our freshmen took a really great shot at their first 8K race today and it's clear that the future of our program is in good hands," added Kenworthy. "Having Jack and Will better our freshman 8K record on their first try shows that they have a lot to look forward to both this year and beyond. The freshmen contributions to the team this year will be a big boost towards filling out our depth and ensuring we have a full group of seven competitive and relevant performers on the championship starting line. That is a huge factor in reaching our goals."

Meanwhile, the women finished seventh of 10 teams and sixth amongst the eight competing MAAC schools, placing ahead of both Fairfield and Saint Peter's on the 6K course.

"Today was an interesting day for the women," said Kenworthy. "They didn't get the benefit of the cool morning weather that the men had, and we had also just finished up a particularly difficult week of training that left their legs considerably less fresh than we will have for our bigger, late season races. But I thought they took those challenges well and we had some good takeaways from their first 6K race, and our first competition against some of our MAAC rivals."

Junior Shannon Bauer finished 15th overall and her time of 22:53.8 was the fifth fastest 6K time in program history. Senior Christie MacFarlane clocked a 26th place finish (23:21.7) and rookie Sarah Forman ran the eighth fastest freshman 6K time in program history (23:32.9).

"The focus was getting into the middle of the race and competing well against the women they found themselves with, which I thought they accomplished really well," commented Kenworthy. "Fast times will come with well-executed races, and I think we took a nice step forward today in our race readiness. I know many of the women are already looking ahead to Paul Short in two weeks, so that should be a fun opportunity to see how we can build on this experience today."

The Saints will have a week off before returning to action for the aforementioned Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh University on Friday, Oct. 2 at 9:30 a.m. in Bethlehem, Pa.