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BLUE CARPET

LOUISVILLE — In an exciting head-to-head match-up, Syracuse took down two-time defending champion Colorado to claim the NCAA Cross Country Championship title with 82 points over the Buffaloes’s 91. 

 

“It feels great! What a time to be alive!” Knight said after finishing in the top five at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. 

 

Chris Fox’s Syracuse squad was led by brilliant finishes from Justyn Knight (4th), Colin Bennie (8th), and Martin Hehir (9th), but the four and five scorers were the heros of the day as Philo Germano and Joel Hubbard stepped up big time to earn 39th and 47th finishes, respectively.  

The 2015 #NCAAXC Men's Champions - @CuseXCTF! pic.twitter.com/XZY4LxNanj

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) November 21, 2015

 

Following the upset victory, the men of Syracuse gave all credit to Coach Fox who has been coaching the Orange since 2005. Interestingly enough, Fox’s bio on the Syracuse athletic website speaks of his vision when he assumed the position, “[to] transform the Orange into national contenders.”

 

The vision came true Saturday with an ecstatic Syracuse squad who finally earned the coveted podium finish after claiming fifth last year. 

 

“This is the real factor! The [Chris] Fox Factor!” Bennie said in a post-race interview, referencing the Colorado Head Coach Mark Wetmore whose training is commonly known as “The Wetmore Factor.” 

The 1-5 spread of Syracuse went unmatched by the Colorado Buffaloes who tallied 91 points with Pierce Murphy’s third-place finish, followed by Morgan Pearson (25th), John Dressel (26th), Ben Saarel (31st) and Connor Winter (33rd). The performance was a far cry from the team’s dominant performance at last year’s championship where they put four in the top 25 and three in the top 10 in Terre Haute, Indiana. 

The Syracuse squad managed the upset over the defending champions by pulling away at a crucial point in the race, the 8K mark. 

 

With the help of early leader Patrick Tiernan of Villanova, the race was paced fast from the beginning, which played into the favor of Syracuse. It started with the Orange leading at the 2K mark with 97 points, ahead of Iona who was running in second with 143 points, followed by Colorado with 181 points.

 

By halfway, the Orange had moved up slightly with 90 points over then-runner-up Stanford who trailed with 123 points. Colorado still remained in third place at that point. 

 

But by the 8K mark, Colorado had started to move up as the Buffaloes and Orange found themselves in a dead tie with 99 points each. In a nail-biting final 2,000m, Syracuse found the extra gear from Germano and Hubbard who closed in on top 50 finishes in the final stretches of the race. From 8K to the finish line, Germano moved up 14 spots while Hubbard closed in on four places. That effort proved to be the final push to earn Syracuse the program’s first NCAA cross country crown since the team won in 1951. 

 

“We ran exactly like we ran at Wisconsin, we ran like we ran at Boston, we ran like we ran at conference, get out, take ownership of the race, and take your shots at us, you know!” Fox told FloTrack.