GENESEO, N.Y. (November 13, 2021) – The SUNY Delhi women's cross country team performed exceptionally well Saturday in their first-ever NCAA Niagara Region Championship, placing 13th on the 6K Warplane Museum course, hosted by SUNY Geneseo. The Broncos stacked 414 points, led by freshman Kristina Messler logging a 57th-place finish in a time of 25:33.8.

The trio of Mary Lyons, Marissa Lombardi, and Sophie Stewart finished between 89th and 94th, with Lyons first in that order at 26:35.4, Lombardi 91st at 26:40.0, and Stewart at 26:43.3. Shyanne Lawton earned the final points for Delhi, taking 104th at 27:28.8. Kailyn Oreglio ran 111th at 28:02.0 and Amber Scruggs 138th at 32:40.0.

The women previewed the Geneseo course back on Oct. 2 for the Mike Woods Invitational, with Messler making an extraordinary 3-minute improvement. Lyons improved by 36 seconds and Stewart 30 seconds. It was the first course run for Lawton and Scruggs, who did not run at the Woods Invite.

"Really happy with how everyone performed today," said Coach Ben Finnigan. "Super excited with how everyone finished their season, we had a lot of PR's today."

Host SUNY Geneseo won the event with 19 points, placing six in the top ten. 

The women followed the men's race, which was highlighted by Seth Bywater becoming the first NCAA national qualifier in SUNY Delhi history with his 13th-place finish in the 8K event. He will run at next Saturday's NCAA National Championships in Louisville, Ky. at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park. It is hosted by the Louisville Sports Commission and Spalding University. The finals will be streamed live on NCAA.com beginning at 11 a.m. ET for the men's race and 12 p.m. ET for the women's race.