CU Cross Country Preview - at Ronald C. Hoffman Invitational (9/20)

Cross Country | 9/18/2025 11:32:00 AM

Saturday will mark the first of three times that the Clarkson University Cross Country team will run at St. Lawrence University's course, with this weekend's race marking the 33rd annual Ronald C. Hoffman Invitational.

Live Timing
Live Video

St. Lawrence Men's Course (11 am start)
St. Lawrence Women's Course (12 noon start)

The Field: Saturday's field will be roughly the same size as the race that Clarkson itself will host in early November (Liberty League Championships). St. Lawrence will also be hosting the considerably larger NCAA Mideast Regional Championship in mid-November. Along with Clarkson and host St. Lawrence, SUNY Canton, Plattsburgh State, Lemoyne, Norwich, Carleton (Canada), Queens (Canada), Ottawa (Canada), Paul Smiths, SUNY Potsdam, Middlebury, Clinton Community College, and Mohawk Valley Community College will be entrants on Saturday.

The Men: 2012 graduate Alex Benway has one of the top times in the history of the course, tying for 39th all-time with a run of 25:25 at the 2011 NCAA Regionals, which helped him qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships. None of the Golden Knights are expected to challenge that time this early in the season, but the top hopes for high finishes come from Drew Reigelsperger, Matthew Clarner, Frank Consolazio, and James Lynch, with three of the four having solid results in the past. The lone outlier in that group is Clarner, who is in his first season on the team, but has already proved to be a top participant for the Knights, coming in eighth at the Aldrich Invitational in Middlebury last weekend. Reigelsperger finished 37 out of 111 runners at last year's Liberty League Championship with a time of 26:35.8, and he has been Clarkson's top runner in all three races at the course in the last two seasons.

The Women: Clarkson's top runners will be dependent on who is healthy for the race. Alexandra Simon had the top time for the Knights a year ago at the Liberty League Championships (26:04.1), while Gianna Capoccia finished 36th out of 90 during the regular season race (25:01.0). Skylar Francis was the Knights' top competitor in 2023 (27:59.3). Francis has been in the Knights' top three in each of the last three races at St. Lawrence, finishing the 2024 regular-season race in 27:21.0 and then shaving more than a second off her time in the Liberty League Championships six weeks later, running in 26:11.9.

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Players Mentioned

Gianna Capoccia: Graduate Student

Frank Consolazio: Sophomore

Skylar Francis: Junior

James Lynch: Sophomore

Drew Reigelsperger: Junior

Alexandra Simon: Junior

Matthew Clarner: Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Gianna Capoccia
: Graduate Student

Frank Consolazio
: Sophomore

Skylar Francis
: Junior

James Lynch
: Sophomore

Drew Reigelsperger
: Junior

Alexandra Simon
: Junior

Matthew Clarner
: Sophomore