VICTOR SCHMITT-BUSH
Assistant News Editor
Ethan Francis said that he felt fortunate as a senior to have his final cross country SUNYAC championship at home, but the meet ended on an even higher note for him as awards were being given out.
With a 3.95 grade point average in Video Production & Political Science, Francis received the SUNYAC Elite 20 award, which, according to the official SUNYAC website, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete. Francis was honored by SUNYAC for having achieved the highest grades among his peers while also reaching the pinnacle of competition at the conference championship level.
On top of that, the sloppy weather conditions wouldn’t stop Francis from placing fourth out of over 100 runners, finishing the race in 29 minutes and seven seconds. The entire Fredonia men’s team placed seventh overall with 185 points total, and the women’s team placed eighth with 199 points.
With just a little luck, Francis may have two races left in his season, beginning with the regional cross country meet held in Glassboro, N.J., on Nov. 10.
Then, Francis and head men’s and women’s cross country coach Tom Wilson hope the senior star will have a shot at making the NCAA Division III championships which will be held the week after.
“[On Saturday, Oct. 17 at SUNYAC], Ethan finished fourth behind three Geneseo guys,” said Wilson. “If that were regionals, Ethan would actually finish first. He would be the first individual across the line going into national championships because Geneseo would be going in as a team.”
The men’s and women’s team didn’t make the cut this year to get into the the NCAA’s, but with Geneseo doing exceptionally well this year, Wilson has high hopes that Francis will make it. He would represent Fredonia as an individual, and as long as there is good footing on the track, Wilson believes that the win could be Francis’s for the taking.
“The good thing is that the NCAA’s will be [held on Nov. 17] in Oshkosh, Wis.,” said Wilson. “It’s frigid there. That means the ground will be stable.”
That would be a welcome change, especially when considering how bad the weather was. It’s been six years since Fredonia has held a cross country SUNYAC championship. Everyone was excited and they did their best to prepare, but despite excellent planning and tough training, mother nature had the final say.
The women’s teams were the first to run the course, but the course was doomed to sink in before the gun went off. The conditions made it difficult for both the men and women runners to focus on anything other than pushing through the mud and hoping to make headway.
According to Francis, the 2,000 meter loop was pretty stable during the first half of the men’s run, but the ground gave way after the first lap.
“The other half of the course, no one moved and everyone was just sloshing through it,” he said. “It was so funny. People were trying to use the streamers on the side of the track to hold onto to keep balance.”
One of the three team captains on the women’s team, Emily Maguire, said that this wasn’t the first time they had run on this course in the rain and mud, but Saturday was still a surprise.
“This weather was definitely worse than anything we had trained in,” she said. “We were ankle deep in mud. We even had our shoes taped on so they weren’t getting stuck and falling off. It was just one uneven step after another.
It was Maguire’s final SUNYAC championship as a Fredonia Blue Devil, too. She along with her fellow senior runners/team captains, Hannah Kurbs and Stephanie Wojnowski, were happy to be running on their home turf this year.
“Just being able to show off our campus to the other SUNY schools and show them what our school is about was cool,” said Wojnowski. “Other sports teams [at Fredonia] were really supportive and they got into it. It was really fun to have that comradery and other teams coming to cheer.”
Although a treat for Fredonians, it was no surprise for the whole Atlantic region that SUNYAC would be held at Fredonia, according to Wilson.
“We knew we were hosting a little over a year-in advance,” said Wilson. “That’s how they do it. They choose ahead, and you have to get approved by a committee board in the SUNYAC, so about 14 months prior to us actually hosting, it all began.”
Wilson gave props to both the grounds crew coordinator Rich Norton for doing an excellent job putting the course together and the new meet director Ryan Pericozzi for coordinating the event.
“They did a lot of work out there to try to make the conditions as best as possible,” he said.“It didn’t really show because of mother nature, but between the grounds crew and Coach Pericozzi, they put a lot of work into that course.”
According to Wilson, the SUNYAC championships were just the beginning of what is to come. As the representative for the entire Atlantic region, Wilson will be looking out for and vouching for all teams in Western New York to compete in the NCAA.
“My job is to regionally rank our top 10 men and then promote my region and my men, not just Fredonia, but the entire region to the NCAA committee,” said Wilson.
If the teams in the Atlantic region do well, that’s a good thing for Francis, but as far as Fredonian’s are concerned, all eyes are on him.