Orange and Blue sweep top-4 spots

Curt Bliamptis, Staff Writer

The men’s cross country team had its first meet of the season on Sept. 2 in the Bison Open. They raced Juniata College and Susquehanna University, outperforming both teams.

The three-mile race’s top 13 finishers were all Bison. Ross Pirnie ’17, Drew Dorflinger ’20, and Ben Siciliano ’20 finished first, second, and third respectively, with Pirnie coming in at 14:39. Following behind was Luke Giugliano ’17 in fourth, with Jacob Stupak ’20, Louis Tobias ’17, Zach Williams ’18, Kyle Adams ’18, Landin Delaney ’19, and Brian Dengler ’20 not far behind.

Tri-captain Pirnie snagged his first career win with a personal best at the opening race for the Orange and Blue. Pirnie returns for his final season as a Bison after having a successful junior season. Last cross country season, he finished 20th out of 94 in the Harry Lang Invitational and 12th out of 196 at the Dickinson Long-Short Invitational.

Head coach Kevin Donner was pleased with the meet’s results and is already adjusting the team’s future plans accordingly.

“I now have a gauge where each guy is with his fitness, so I can write proper workouts. We got exactly what we needed out of this race,” Donner said.

Welcoming back multiple veteran athletes as well as presenting 11 young racers served well for the Orange and Blue. The team is eager to pick up this season where it left off after taking sixth at Patriot League Championships last season. The Bison will next be racing on Sept. 10 in the Detroit Titan Invitational.