The Binghamton men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Canisius Alumni Classic on Saturday — earning their best team placements of the year. The men captured their first overall event win of the year, while the women earned their best overall placement of the year with a second-place finish.

“We were looking for kind of a smaller meet that would pretty much simulate — at least close to — the America East (AE) conference meet,” said Binghamton head coach Annette Acuff. “I think it was a great meet for us, and that’s good momentum going into the [AE] meet.”

Senior Josh Stone, alongside fifth-year Ryan Guerci, continued to set the pace for the Bearcat men, finishing first and second at the meet. Stone took home first-place honors over the 142-runner men’s 8K field, punching in a time of 24:03.6. Right behind him was Guerci, who clocked in a time of 24:07.3 to bring home the silver medal for BU.

“In a five-mile race, it’s certainly not won in the first mile,” Acuff said. “So you have to be patient a lot of times in an 8K, and that takes experience. Both [Stone] and [Guerci] have a lot of experience with the 8K collegiate distance. So I think they did a good job of pacing the rest of our squad as well, and it ended up being very efficiently run. I think that allowed them an opportunity in the last mile to close the gap and pull out a one-two.”

Also finishing in the top five overall was graduate student Marty Dolan, whose time of 24:38.8, good enough for a fifth-place finish. Elsewhere in the field, graduate student Andrew Harrell clocked in a time of 25:13.6 to finish in 12th place.

Harrell led a pack of Bearcats to the line, with 13th through 16th place behind him all being Binghamton runners. Respectively, sophomore Austin Wefer clocked in a time of 25:16.7, freshman Tim Smith with 25:19.2, sophomore Andrew Rosenblatt finishing at 25:24.6 and freshman Liam Cody with a time of 25:25.6. These combined efforts allowed Binghamton to take the men’s overall crown with 30 points.

“You certainly want to have good momentum going into your championship section of the season, and I think we achieved that yesterday,” Acuff said. “Those guys, they just did a really good job of racing together … it’s hard to do that in the bigger meets. So I think that a smaller meet just gave us a really good opportunity to be able to show that we can race together in the meets.”

Over in the women’s 8K, with graduate student Sophia Ryan on rest, sophomore Sydney Leitner filled her shoes as the top women’s runner for BU. Leitner finished fourth overall in the women’s 5K event, clocking in a time of 17:53.0. This marks Leitner’s best result of the season, coming off of a few missteps, including a trip and fall, at the Lehigh Paul Short Run, along with a practice injury.

“[Leitner] just needed a good race experience,” Acuff said. “She really did. I think that’s her first good race of the season, and she has had a few setbacks. So I’m super proud of her for being resilient and staying confident in her fitness and in her talent. Every week she’s getting a little bit closer to being in full form.”

Three other Bearcat women’s runners secured top 10 overall placements, as junior Jennifer Mui clocked in a time of 18:23.8 to finish in 7th place, freshman Brynn Hogan crossed the line in 8th place with a time of 18:28.8 and graduate student Kyra Guerci netted a 10th place result with a time of 18:30.2. Just outside of the top 10 was graduate student Sheridan Talada, whose time of 18:33.0 placed her in 11th overall.

“We’ve been back in action, training together now for close to eight weeks,” Acuff said. “It can take a couple of months to achieve a higher level of fitness … and we’re starting to see the results in the meets and we’re seeing it in practice from all of their hard work over the past six to eight weeks that they’ve been back on campus and in our sport.”

Binghamton will compete at the AE Championships on Friday, Oct. 27. The first race is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, Maine.