Led by DuPont, Weeks, SU cross country captures conference crown
With only two meets left in the season, the turning point for the Syracuse men’s cross country team came in early October when it failed to repeat as champions at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational.
Ever since that fourth-place finish, the team has been undefeated. After the Wisconsin trip, Forrest Misenti decided to cut his hair in a mullet-type Mohawk that he calls the ‘Zipper,’ but with the team on a win streak, he’s decided to keep it a little longer.
‘I can’t cut it off now,’ Misenti said Monday. ‘I’ve got to keep it.’
And with good reason. The Orange’s two-match win streak culminated in a victory in the Big East championship on Saturday. Led by Misenti, junior Pat DuPont and senior Steve Weeks, who each finished in the Top 10 of the meet, SU captured the championship. All three of those runners earned All-Big East honors for their performances.
Misenti was feeling too good to let the cold weather ruin his day on Monday. Coming off his team’s second consecutive Big East championship on Saturday, the sophomore Misenti was still reveling in the moment two days later.
‘It feels great,’ Misenti said when asked about his team’s big victory on Saturday at Jamesville Beach Park. ‘Going into it, we wanted to repeat. We didn’t have to have an incredibly good day, but we just had to have everybody run well. We had some guys step up, but we’re moving on to the bigger picture and looking forward to nationals.’
Syracuse shocked everyone when it won its first Big East title in Wisconsin last season, but this year the team faced added pressure because it was the favorite, as SU ran on its home course.
Though the players on the team had smiles on their faces at Monday’s practice, SU’s runners know they still have a lot of work to do, especially coming off a nearly 17-second team win on Saturday. Junior runner Tito Medrano, for one, is making sure his squad does not become too overconfident about its chances in upcoming regional and national meets.
‘We don’t take anything for granted,’ Medrano said. ‘We’re going into the meet (NCAA Northeast Regional) knowing we need to perform solid like we always do. Nationals is where we want to make a statement, and we still have a sour taste in our mouths from last year.’
After placing first or second in every meet up until the NCAA championships, the team failed to perform to its level of expectation and finished a disappointing 14th. Head coach Chris Fox hasn’t forgotten about what happened last year in Indiana, and it has been one of his motivational tools all season.
‘These guys are pretty motivated,’ Fox said. ‘All year the goal was to run well because this is the start of our season. The regionals are only important that we get to nationals because we have become a kind of a conference/nationals team.’
A Top 10 finish is what Fox is aiming for, and with the program receiving so much recent attention, he is making sure his team is focused and starving for even more success.
And Medrano is one of his players hungry for more.
‘We’re definitely hungry for more,’ Medrano said. ‘We’re far from satisfied and won’t stop getting hungry until we run well at nationals.’
