After enjoying a week off from competition, both the men and women’s cross country teams were back in action this past week as they both competed at the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble.

The men’s team managed a 30^th place finish out of 32 teams for the day. They were once again led to the finish line by senior Austin Becker, who has now registered the best finishing time on the team in four straight meets.

Becker’s overall time on the day was 26:41, finishing 166^th out of the 274 player field.

Becker wasn’t the only one who had a strong showing for the men’s team, as sophomore Mitch Rabold finished 209^th on the day with a time of 27:27.

“I had mixed feelings because I did have mild pain on race day,” said Rabold, who has been battling an injury, “but I also had the confidence due to the speed workouts I went through in the week.”

Not only did Rabold overcome the injury, he also set a new personal record.

“It was a personal best” Rabold said. “However, with SUNYACs coming up, I’m hoping to improve on that time in our upcoming Championship meets.”

Following Becker and Rabold for the men’s team were Benaleo Daniels with a time of 28:58, finishing 251^st, and Greg Avila-Shah finished 255^th with a finishing time of 29:05.

The men will have another week off before going on to compete in the SUNYAC Championship on Oct. 31 in Plattsburgh.

Out of the 28 competing teams, the women managed a 19^th place finish.

For the second straight week, the women were led by freshman Ronni Krodrupel who finished 54^th out of 244 runners with another impressive time of 22:43 on the 6k course.

Following Krodrupel’s lead was senior Kat McNamara, who finished 98^th with a time of 23:15.

Elizabeth Wall was hot on McNamara’s heels, finishing 134^th with a time of 23:55. The third Bengal finisher was freshman Kaylee Cassidy, who finished 183^rd with a time of 24:58.

“It was definitely a step in the right direction for me and the team as well” Cassidy said. “It was the second 6k I’ve ran and I’m pretty sure a lot of us set new personal records.”

Cassidy feels the hard work the team has put into this year will show during SUNYACs.

“We’ve trained through all of our meets to peak at SUNYAC, so that alone is going to show in our times,” Cassidy said. “I definitely expect to see some fast times.”

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