The Hamilton College men's cross country team heads into 2015 with a talented senior class that has achieved a great deal of success the past three years.
Evan Abelson '16, Jack Moses '16, Adam Pfander '16 and Harry Sullivan '16 lead the group as they aim to take the Continentals to the next level in their final season. Pfander, who ran in the 2013 NCAA Division III Championships, didn't compete last year. Despite his absence, the team finished second at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference (NYSCTC) Championships and eighth out of 41 teams at the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships. The performances either equaled or were the best in 24 years under head coach Brett Hull.
Sullivan enjoyed the best year out of all returning Hamilton men's cross country athletes. He finished 18th out of 285 runners at the 2014 regional meet and earned all-region honors. He led a group of six Continentals on the NYSCTC all-conference team as all six ended up in the top 20 at the conference championships. Sullivan made the first team for taking fifth place at the meet.
Sullivan and Moses are two-time members of the NYSCTC all-conference team -- both athletes picked up those honors in 2013 and last year. Moses finished ninth at the 2014 meet and landed on the second team.
Jack Pierce '17 also made the second team after he took 13th place at the NYSCTC championships. Abelson and Henry Whipple '18 grabbed spots on the third team after they finished 15th and 19th, respectively. Abelson, Pierce, Whipple, Moses and Sullivan all ran in the season-ending regional championships last year in mid-November.
Sullivan became just the third Hamilton men's runner to finish under 26 minutes on the Continentals' home 8-kilometer course with his time of 25:56 in the 2014 Hamilton Invitational. The others are Ben Yeo '15 and the legendary Peter Kosgei '11. In fact, Sullivan, Pfander, Abelson, Moses, Whipple and David Freeman '16 are all in the top 15 on the home course top times list.
The team welcomes six new athletes to the roster, including Jon Stanhope '18, who earned Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) All-Conference honors for finishing in the top eight in the men's 3,200-meter relay at the 2015 ECAC Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Hamilton hosts its own invitational and the NYSCTC Championships in October. The Continentals also travel to the Saratoga, University of Rochester Yellowjacket and SUNY Geneseo Invitationals. Wesleyan University hosts the NESCAC Championships, the regional meet is at Letchworth State Park in western New York and the NCAA Championships are at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wisconsin.
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