By Alex Wagner
Contributing Writer
The men’s cross country team finished fifth at the Patriot League Championships last Saturday at Lehigh University. John Dugan ’15 placed 14th and earned Rookie of the Meet.
Dave Brown ’12 was once again the Bison’s top finisher with a time of 25:35.10, placing him 11th overall. His strong performance earned him a spot on the Second Team All-Patriot League.
John Dugan ’15 finished just one second and two spots behind Brown. In addition to winning Rookie of the Meet, he also earned a place on the Second Team All-Patriot League with Brown.
The next two finishers for the Orange and Blue were Dustin Horning ’13 and Andrew Garcia-Garrison ’15. Horning finished in 26:13.70 for 27th place while Garcia-Garrison finished just behind him with a 26:14.80 finish for 28th.
“The conditions were very cold and snowy but everyone really toughed it out and still ran great,” Horning said.
D.J. Krystek ’13 earned 32nd place with a time of 26:20.70. He was followed by Andrew Kirna ’15 in 41st place and Michael McGowan ’15 in 42nd place, with times of 26:40.90 and 26:42.10, respectively.
Though they improved on last year’s result, the Bison were still not completely satisfied.
“The team would have liked to have been a little higher in the league standings,” McGowan said. “Fortunately, we have a very young team and we are pretty excited when looking towards the future in what we can do.”
Navy once again took top Patriot League honors and won its fourth championship in a row, beating No. 2 American by a score of 38-49. Christopher Johnson of Colgate took the top individual spot with a time of 24:53.90.
“It was our best race of the year as a team,” head coach Kevin Donner said. “Although we were hoping for a higher team finish, we have closed the gap quite a bit with Army and Lehigh, who both hammered us at the Paul Short Invitational one month ago.”
At the conclusion of the team’s Patriot League campaign championships, Donner is already looking ahead.
“With four freshmen in our top seven, the future looks bright,” he said.