The Bison women’s and men’s cross country teams competed at the Patriot League Championships on Saturday, Nov. 2. The women took home the silver, seven points behind Boston University, while the men finished in fifth overall.

Coming off of four consecutive Patriot League Championship titles, all eyes were on the Bison women in Hamilton, N.Y.  Third place title winner Olivia Dyer ’22 was joined by three other women among the day’s top ten finishers. In her Patriot League Championship debut, Dyer ran an astounding 22.04.06 in the 6k course, closely trailing the top two seniors from Boston University and Holy Cross.

Ashley Blair ’21 and Ashlyn Ramos ’22 also played key roles in earning the team’s silver medal. Blair topped her previous finish in last year’s Championships by improving from sixth to fifth place with a time of 22.11.3, sufficient to earn the veteran All-Patriot League First Team accolades for the second year in a row.  Ramos placed one spot below Blair with a time of 22.15.5, also earning First Team All-Patriot League honors in her Championship debut.

Drew Dorflinger ’20 led the men in the final Patriot League run of his career. After missing last year’s Championships due to an injury, the senior completed the course with a time of 25.03.9 to earn silver. Jake Stupak ’20 joined Dorflinger in the top-ten with a 10th place finish, clocking in at 25.41.5. Stupak improved three places from last year’s Championships despite limited training while dealing with an injury.

“On an individual basis, I’m happy with my performance considering the limited training I was able to complete, however, I still feel there is room for improvement.  Ultimately the goal was to help the team place as high as possible, and do whatever I could to help accomplish that,” Stupak said.

As both teams prepare to continue postseason at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships on Nov. 15, they remain focused on improving from both the regular and beginning of the postseason.

“The team is not satisfied with our results, so we are heading into the NCAA Regional meet motivated and ready to prove that we are much better than our league’s performance indicated,”  Stupak said.