LOUDONVILLE, NY – Following a canceled Fall 2020 campaign and a shortened spring season, Siena Men's & Women's Cross Country will be back in full force this weekend to begin the fall. After being selected to finish near the top of the MAAC last week, the teams will run in the first of 10 scheduled fall meets on Saturday, September 4 at the Marist Season Opener at Vassar Farm in Poughkeepsie, NY.
The Green and Gold will compete against multiple conference counterparts in a regionally-centered field, with defending MAAC Champion Iona, Manhattan, Marist, Connecticut, Brown, Central Connecticut State, and Wagner. The men's 6k will take place at 9:00 AM, while the women's 5k will start at 9:45. Live results from the meet will be available through Fulton Accurate Timing, while live updates will also be available by following @SienaXCTrack on Tritter.
The Saints will look to continue the upward trend that the program has taken under the direction of head coach
John Kenworthy, who enters his ninth season. The women's squad enters the year picked to finish second in the 2021 MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll, while the men were predicted to land third, and also received a preseason regional ranking of 13
th in the Northeast Region in the USTFCCCA Preseason Regional Cross Country Rankings.
The women set a program record for their best finish ever at the MAAC Championships back in the spring, with a program record four runners named to the All-MAAC team for top-15 individual finishes. Three of the four – junior
Delia McDade Clay, senior
Olivia Lomascolo, and graduate student
Regina Rosati, return to the squad for the Fall 2021 campaign. The men's team's fourth-place finish at last year's MAAC Championships marked the sixth straight year that they landed in the top-5. Junior
Brandon Olden earned All-MAAC honors for the first time ever and became the first Siena runner in 40 years to qualify for the NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country Championship. Former MAAC All-Rookie Team honorees
Aidan Gillooley &
Killian McNamee, as well as returning graduate student
Aidan Canavan, also return for the Saints on the men's side.
Overall, the team returns 36 members of previous rosters, and welcomes in 15 new members as part of its freshman class. Siena will return home to run at The Crossings of Colonie just down the road from campus for the first time in two years next weekend when it hosts the annual Siena Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, September 11 at 9:45 AM. Other notable fall events include the prestigious and long-running Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, PA on October 1, the Penn State National Open on October 15, and the 2021 MAAC Men's & Women's Cross Country Championships, which will be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Florida on October 30.
