Men’s XC placed sixth overall at the Patriot League Cross Country Championships held at Lafayette in Easton, PA, scoring 140 points.
The Bison men took on the entire Patriot League on Saturday at Lafayette’s Metzgar Fields Athletic Complex. They looked to improve off their fourth-place team finish last year, though faced a deep field where their main rivals would be heavy favorites Navy along with perennial podium teams Army and Boston University.
Ethan Pratt-Perez ’28 was the standout runner for the Orange and Blue, placing 14th overall in a time of 24:11.90 over 8k. This was the highest finish by a Bison first-year on the men’s side since 2011 when John Dugan ’15 placed 13th overall. It was also the first All-League performance by a Bison male since 2020-2021 when Connor McMenamin ’21 and Evan Minor ’21 made First and Second Team respectively. Pratt-Perez was also one of the top first-year finishers among all teams, being the fourth one to cross the line in Easton.
Grayson Crockett ’25, Henry Didden ’26, Ben Santos ’25 and Harry Marson ’25 rounded out the scoring for the Orange and Blue finishing 31st, 36th, 40th and 41st respectively. The Bison had slowly worked their way up throughout the meet, nestling in at fifth place through the first mile and staying there until just about a mile from the finish at 3.92 miles where they moved up into the fourth position. Over the last mile, both Colgate and Lehigh caught a second wind with their runners moving up 11 and seven places, respectively, to finish just ahead of the Orange and Blue.
“I think our team was really poised to place well at leagues, and we just ran into a lot of bad luck. I believe that regionals will be a chance to prove our depth and our ability to tackle the course” Pratt-Perez said. This is the lowest finish by the Bison men since 2021 when they also placed sixth overall, also scoring 140 points. The difference in the five-man average was massive with the 2021 Bison averaging 26:00 for 8k while the 2024 team averaged 24:47, over a one-minute difference.
Looking at the overall results, Navy continued their dominance over the Patriot League, finishing first and winning their fourth straight title and also the 12th in program history.
Men’s XC will look to rebound in about two weeks when they take on the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships in State College, Penn. at Penn State on Nov. 15.
