HILBERT, D'YOUVILLE OPEN CROSS COUNTRY SEASONS AT FREDONIA

The Hilbert College men's cross country team opened the season with a third place finish at the Fredonia State Invitational, while D'Youville College came in fourth place. The Spartan women came in third place, while the Hawks failed to field a full team.

Hilbert junior Adam Droz set a new Hilbert College men's cross country 5K record as he lifted the Hawks to a 3rd place finish at the Fredonia Cross Country Invitational. 

Droz was the first Hawk across the finish line (17:41.4) in 24th overall place but gave Hilbert 15 points. Breandan Mantz trailed behind at 18:25.9 and added 16 points. Freshman Adam Connelly completed his first collegiate 5K in 19:45.6 (19) and sophomore Odin Patanzo and freshman Mitchell Rushok partnered together with Patanzo stretching to a 19:52.5 and Rushok in 20:03.3 for the final countable points (21 and 22).

D'Youville was led by senior Brian Buttaggi, who finished 33rd overall with a time of 19:12.5, while sophomore Andrew Tantalo finished in 35th place (19:42.5).

Gannon University took the men's title with 23 points easily head of the host Fredonia who posted 35 points.  Hilbert grabbed third place with 93 points and finished nine ahead of D'Youville (102).

On the women's side, Hilbert junior Megan Lee cruised to a 13th place overall finish, but the women's team failed to count in the team standings. Lee was joined by senior Samantha Bugenhagen's 27:38.2 time along with sophomore Bridgett Moshier who clocked in at 29:34.7

D'Youville sophomore Kathryn Piraino trailed right behind Lee, finishing in 14th place with a time of 21:25.3. The Spartans also had a trio come in places 33 through 35, freshman Alison Gareis (23:12.2), sophomore Stephanie Lisiecki (23:33.3), and freshman Kaitlyn Furtado (23:35.7).

Fredonia nipped Gannon for the women's title with 27 points, just one ahead of the Division II program which collected 28 points.  D'Youville posted 82 points for an uncontested third place finish.