The Bison men’s cross country team debuted their skills this weekend at the Patriot League Championships. The men’s team finished fourth overall with 86 points, improving one spot from a fifth-place finish from a year ago. The Bison competed against fierce competitors with Army taking the first place spot for the fourth year in a row. The field was rounded out by Boston University, Lafayette, Lehigh, American, Holy Cross, Colgate and Loyola (Md.).

Connor McMenamin ’21 and Evan Minor ’21 had a great showing, as both were able to secure personal bests at the meet. McMenamin finished 15 spots higher than his highest-ever finish of 20th as a first year in 2017. And Minor posted a similarly strong personal performance on Friday as he improved his best-ever finish from 41st (2019) to 11th.

Other scoring team members on the day were Samuel Whittaker ’23 (13th), Owen Chase ’22 (26th), and Brendan Mellitt ’24 (32nd).

In their debut this weekend as well, the Bison women’s cross country team finished third overall as a team with a total of 61 points. Other competitors that edged out the Bison were Boston University, who repeated as the conference champion, and Army West Point.

While the team finished third overall, the real standout was Ashlyn Ramos ’22, as she finished the 3.7 mile course first with a time of 19:34.7. She edged out the second place finisher from Boston University by less than seven seconds. This comes as a huge achievement for Ramos, as she finished sixth at the 2019 Patriot League Championships last year. Ramos will now advance to the NCAA Championships on March 15 in Stillwater, Okla.

Other scoring members for the Bison were Ashley Blair ’21 (7th, 20:15.9), Emily Deschler ’22 (14th, 20:37.7), Abby Paczewski ’24 (19th, 20:53.4), and two-time Second Team All-League pick Nora Bennett ’23 (20th, 20:53.7).

Despite finishing fourth and third, respectively, the Orange and Blue now look forward to their outdoor track and field season. As head coach Kevin Donner stated, “I see this as our first outdoor meet, not our last cross country meet.”