Just one week after a first- and-second-place finish for the women’s and men’s cross country team, respectively, the Lakers hosted the Oswego State Invitational. At their second meet of the season, both the men and women finished in second place behind the top-flight SUNY Geneseo Knights.

On the men’s side, two racers finished in the top 10. Senior Nick LeClair set a personal best, running the 6k in 19:29.2, while his teammate, Andrew Boyce, completed the race six seconds later. The duo were the ninth and 10th athletes to finish the race. Although cross country appears to be an individual sport, a racer’s team helps them in the race.

“It is all about working together; we block out everyone else in the race,” LeClair said. “My group [tried] to stay with each other. If one of us falls back, we try to pull them up [because] they would do the same for us.”

Speaking of grouping, four other Lakers finished in the top 20. Tim Olmsted ran a 19:51.1, which was good enough for 14th place, as Doug Bachman, Matthew Barbookles and Ben Lupia all finished within six seconds of each other. Backman finished in 18th place with a time of 20:13.3, while Barbookles and Lupia finished in 19th and 20th place, respectively.

Despite dropping toward the bottom of the top 20 at this meet, all six of the previously mentioned racers finished with their personal bests. This drop was due to the better competition, as SUNY Geneseo had the top eight finishers on the men’s side. While the results were satisfactory, head coach Evan Magnussen did not put an emphasis on setting personal bests.

“I was happy with the results. On the men’s side, most people [either] met or beat their race plan…For the most part, everything went really well,” Magnussen said. “I expected [them to set personal bests] to a certain degree because this is really the only time we ever run a 6k, so it just shows they’re stronger than last year.”

On the women’s side, Mackenzie Ross improved on her time at the Pre-SUNY Invitational from 16:15.8 to 15:32.1. Her time placed her 12th overall but the best amongst the Lakers. Two other Lakers cracked the top 20, as freshman Emily Gustafson finished in 14th with a time of 15:37.9 and junior Megan O’Dweyer completed the race in 15:51. Gustafson ended the race with a pleasant surprise, her time was over a minute better than at the previous meet.

“It was definetly a surprise because I misheard some of the times as I was going past each kilometer,” Gustafson said. “I thought I was going slower than I was set out to do, so I picked it up every time I hit a kilometer.”

One of the bigger stories from this weekend was the SUNY Geneseo Knights. Their nationally ranked program held eight of the top 10 spots in both the men’s 6k and women’s 4k.

For the Lakers, their next meet is this Saturday, Sept. 15, as the University of Rochester will host the Yellowjacket Invitational.

Greg Tavani | The Oswegonian