Two Saturdays ago, the men and women of Colgate’s cross-country team traveled to the Bronx to compete in the IC4A and Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, respectively. The races at Van Cortlandt Park proved to be an excellent end to the season for the team.

The men’s team was led by senior Andrew Isabel, who finished 17th out of 165 runners. Right behind him in 19th place was sophomore Emmett Weatherford. These two runners finished with times of 26:35 and 26:45, respectively.

Following the Raiders’ two leaders was first-year Bryan Kretschmer in 28th place and senior Scott DeRoo in 80th place. The finishes were good enough to put the Colgate men into ninth place overall with 215 points.

On the women’s side, Colgate exceeded all expectations, placing five runners in the meet’s top fifteen finishers. The Raiders were led by sophomore Kristen Kiraly, who finished the 5k event in third place with a time of 18:34. Senior Meaghan McAnaney finished four places later, clocking the course at 18:50.

“We knew what we had to do to win and never gave up over the hilly 5k course,” Kiraly said.”All five of our team scorers placed in the top 15 of the race and received All-East ECAC honors.”

On McAnaney’s heels came a triad of Raider runners. Senior Liz Crowley (11th), sophomore Jessica Kielty (12th) and senior Hannah Failing (14th) ran as a group throughout the race and rounded out Colgate’s top finishers.

With excellent finishes by all runners, the Colgate women captured their first ECAC title.

“Our team could not have asked for a better way to end our season,” Kiraly said. “This season is only the beginning to many more years of great success for Colgate women’s cross country.”