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Men's Runners Claim First-Ever ACAA Championship; Lane, Arnecke, Messler Take Top Three

Men's Runners Claim First-Ever ACAA Championship; Lane, Arnecke, Messler Take Top Three

RESULTS

DELHI, N.Y. (October 28, 2017) – The SUNY Delhi men's cross country team celebrated what was already a historic day for SUNY Delhi athletics Saturday by placing first as the host of the inaugural ACAA Cross Country Championships at the College Golf Course. Kobie Lane, Nicholas Arnecke and Jon Messler earned the top three respective individual spots as Delhi ran to a team victory with 19 points. In addition, five other Broncos finished with All-ACAA accolades.

Both the team and individual victories marked a pivotal day for Broncos athletics. SUNY Delhi is in its first year as an NCAA Division III exploratory member, and were granted admission into the newly-formed ACAA conference, which was made official on September 1, 2017. Saturday marked the Broncos' first-ever NCAA conference appearance and championship.

"I thought we executed our race plans really well and showed great depth in spots five through eight," related head coach Robb Munro. While the guys up front were very impressive, the best indicators for us moving forward came from the progression of the next four guys! Today was not only a great day, but an important day for the future of our program as we continue to move towards Division III."

Lane paced the 8K, 36-man race, which consisted of schools Alfred State, SUNY Canton and Valley Forge, with a mark of 26:40.5. Arnecke finished second with a time of 26:49.3, while Messler earned third at 27:13.4. Lucas Reilly joined the three on the ACAA first team placing fifth with a mark of 27:55.4. James Blough (8th, 29:16.6), Jack Hopkins (9th, 29:33.0), Ted Oster (10th, 29:56.7) and Kevin Malen (11th,29:50.3) all posted second-team all-conference finishes to bolster the Broncos to the team win. Also racing for Delhi were Keyshawn Clarke-Wells (23rd, 34:35.6) and Anthony Sood (29th, 40:32.8).