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2012 Men’s Cross Country Preview
August 31, 2012
Bobby Fogle, left, and Lee Bottoni, right, lead a talented group of cross country runners as Keuka College kicks off the 2012 season Saturday at the annual SUNYIT Wildcat Invitational (photo courtesy of Ed Webber, Keuka College Sports Information Department).
The Keuka College men’s cross country team returns four of its top runners from the 2011 season, and will kick off the 2012 season Saturday morning when the Storm competes in the annual SUNYIT Wildcat Invitational.
Fresh off a fifth-place finish during the 2011 North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) championships, the Storm will look to improve on that performance this year.
Sophomore Lee Bottoni (Prattsburgh, NY/Prattsburgh) paces the Storm’s runners. During his freshman season, Bottoni established himself as Keuka’s top runner, claiming the honor of fastest Keuka finisher in seven of eight meets, including during the NEAC championships when he completed the 8K course in a time of 31 minutes, 5.82 seconds. That 15th place finish netted Bottoni third-team All-NEAC honors.
The Keuka College men’s cross country team placed all five runners in the top 40 among scoring runners at NEAC’s.
Sophomore Alex Pollinger (Arkport, NY/Arkport) enjoyed a successful first season with the Green and Gold, finishing among Keuka’s top three runners in seven of eight meets, including back-to-back second-places to end the year.
Classmate Bobby Fogle (Lockport, NY/Lockport) was the top Keuka runner at the SUNY Oswego Invitational with a personal-best time of 29:35 for the 8K course. He recorded four second-place finishes among Keuka runners and finished in the top three on the team in all eight meets.
Bottoni, Pollinger and Fogle will be joined by returning senior co-captains Justin Hess (Clyde, NY/Clyde-Savannah) and Joseph Reiss (Rochester, NY/Charlotte), sophomore Samuel Capozzi (Alpine, NY/Odessa-Montour), junior Brian DelPino (Oneida, NY/Oneida) and freshman Richard Matrassi (New York Mills, NY/NY Mills).
Once again, all of Keuka’s meets are on the road, with races at SUNY Oswego (Sept. 8), Penn State-Abington (Sept. 15) and Cazenovia (Sept. 29) before competing in the CCOC Championships (Oct. 13), the Wells College Invitational (Oct. 20) and NEAC’s at Abington (Oct. 27).
