LOUDONVILLE – Cross Country's Sydney Johnson and Jack O'Hara were selected as the second pair of student athletes for the Leo Dufort Student Athlete of the Month for the 2018-19 school year, winning the award for the month of October. The duo has continued to excel both on the field and in the classroom.

Johnson displayed a breakout year for the Siena Cross Country program in the fall. The junior set a new personal record at the Paul Short Run with a 22:29, beating her previous 6K personal best time by 1:27 and helping the Siena women finished first in the meet. Johnson put up a solid 26th place finish at this year's MAAC Championship hosted by Siena at The Crossings of Colonie. She would then cap off the cross country season with the second-fastest time for the Saints at the NCAA Northeast Regional, and a 22nd place finish at the IC4A/ECAC Championship.

A member of the MAAC All-Academic team this year and a part of Siena's SAAC, Johnson currently holds a 3.9 cumulative GPA while majoring in Psychology.

A senior, O'Hara kept a steady pace all season, finishing in or near the top five in every single meet for the men's cross country program in the fall. He would finish eighth at the Great Dane Invitational with a time of 26:17.7 as his best finish on the fall. O'Hara would score a 21^st place finish in the MAAC Championship, where he helped the Saints set a new program record with a second place overall finish in the meet.

Currently sitting as the president of the Siena's Student Athlete Advisory Committee, O'Hara is majoring in Psychology with a GPA of 3.46. He earned MAAC All-Academic honors at this year's conference championship as well.

The Leo Dufort Student Athlete of the Month Award is presented nine times annually (September-May) throughout the academic year. The award recognizes exemplary achievements in both academics and athletics. The late Leo Dufort received a B.S. in marketing and management from Siena in August of 1977. His entire academic career was completed on a part-time basis beginning in the spring of 1961, as a married adult while at the same time raising five children. He passed away suddenly of a heart attack while cross country skiing in February of 1993. His wife Jeanine wanted to do something to immortalize his memory. The original plaque was donated to athletics and the department began the Leo Dufort Student Athlete of the Month Award to help carry out his legacy. Dufort graduated from Catholic Central High School in 1954, and was a Navy Veteran (USS Bennington) who worked for JL Hammett Co. at the time of his death.