FREDONIA, N.Y. - Oswego State will host some of the best distance runners in the state of New York and the country as the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships take place on Saturday October 30, beginning at 11 a.m. with the 8k men's race followed by the 6k women's race at 12 p.m. Ten schools will take on the course laid out over the Battle Island State Park golf course with the goal of hoisting the SUNYAC Championship trophy in triumph.
 

The Geneseo women, ranked sixth nationally and second in the Atlantic Region, have won ten consecutive SUNYAC titles and are returning four runners who placed in the top 15 last year. Sophomore Brigid Heenan is the top runner from a year ago when she placed sixth, while junior Alyssa Smith took 10th last year and finished third in 2008. Other challengers from Geneseo's squad will include Emily Sullivan and Marissa Liberati who crossed the finish last year ninth and 12th, respectively.
 

Stefanie Braun returns to lead regionally ranked No. 4 Plattsburgh, while Alyson Dalton will be pacing the No. 3 Cortland Red Dragons. Braun and Dalton each finished in the top five last year with Braun edging Dalton for fourth place by four seconds. Dalton has been named the SUNYAC women's cross country runner of the week three times this season.
 

The Geneseo men hope to repeat as SUNYAC champions and will look to junior Lee Berube to lead the pack as the defending individual champion. The Knights top the Atlantic Regional rankings and recently earned its highest national ranking at No. 3. Senior Ryan O'Connor and junior Nick Pardee return for the Knights, earning All-SUNYAC honors last year after finishing 11th and 14th, respectively. Eddie Novara joins the Knights for the 2010 campaign, after placing 10th last year part of the Fredonia team.
 

Leading Fredonia, ranked No. 7 in the regiona, will be senior Nick Guarino who is coming off national titles in both Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field in the 2009-2010 season. Guarino placed 13th at last year's cross country championship.
 

Senior Michael Heymann will be leading the regionally ranked No. 6 Plattsburgh Cardinals. Heymann has finished in the top 15 for the three years, improving each year. In 2007 he took 11th, followed by a big leap to third in 2008 and last year he finished second, eight seconds behind Berube.
 

Other top runners in the mix will be Brockport's Matt Avery and New Paltz's Joe Gentsch. Avery has earned SUNYAC Cross Country runner of the week three times and recently set a school record time of 25:04. Gentsch placed 14th last year and hopes to surge into the top 10.