The Binghamton cross country teams opened their fall seasons at home in a meet with Albany on Friday, finding mixed results. While the men’s team captured a commanding 37-20 victory in its 8K race, the women’s team dropped its 5K by a score of 22-33.
Though the final results were dissimilar, both the men’s and women’s races saw Albany runners take first. On the men’s side, senior Christopher Buchanan clocked a time of 26:16.6 for his narrow first-place finish. On the women’s, senior Molly Pezzulo posted a dominant time of 18:49, over 30 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
The difference between the two races is that while Binghamton’s men’s team claimed the next five finishers, the women’s squad’s fastest runner landed in fourth.
Junior Ethan Hausamann paced BU’s men, garnering second with a time of 26:21.2. Within the next 14 seconds, senior Matt Johnson, sophomore Eric Holt, junior Andrew Roache and senior Jesse Garn all crossed the finish line to clinch the victory for Binghamton.
Albany’s women placed the first three finishers, with freshman Valentina Talevi and sophomore Jessica Donohue taking second and third, respectively, to seal the Great Danes’ victory. BU sophomores Alana MacDonald and Anna Corrigan finished on top for their team, taking fourth and fifth overall with times of 20:15.5 and 20:18.6. In her first career race, freshman Allison Davis was impressive for BU, completing the 5K in 20:23.7 and placing seventh.
“I was very pleased with both team’s performances,” BU head coach Annette Acuff wrote in an email. “We executed well for our first meet of the season and I’m excited about our potential down the road.”
The men’s and women’s team both have a long recovery time before their next scheduled competition. Both teams are set to return to action on Saturday, Sept. 20 at the 20th-annual Iona Meet of Champions. The women’s 6K championship race will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the men’s 8K directly after, at approximately 10:15 a.m. Both races will be held at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.