Men's Cross Country 6/8/2017 3:00:00 PM Mike Miranto, Associate A.D. For Communications

Lagno Announces 2017 Cross Country Schedules

AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's and women's cross country teams will officially open their respective 2017 seasons at Beaver Island State Park in Grand Island, N.Y. for the Daniel Walker Invitational hosted by Buffalo State College on Friday, September 1, third-year head coach Paul Lagno announced today as he released the full slate of competitions for both teams this fall.

"We've made a few changes to the regular season schedule that should set us up nicely heading into the postseason," Lagno said. "We'll be opening up at the Daniel Walker Invitational, which will be a nice opportunity to run on a fast course early in the year."

Both the men's and women's teams will tackle the same events throughout the season, beginning with their first appearance at the Daniel Walker Invitational since the 2011 season.

The Wildcats' season continues on Friday, September 15 when they'll partake in the Stampede Invitational hosted by the University at Buffalo. The meet will take place at the Audubon Golf Course in Amherst, just three miles from the Daemen campus. It'll be Daemen's first appearance at the Stampede Invitational which generally features several Division I teams amongst the competitors, and it gives the Wildcats an opportunity to run on the same course that they'll compete on later in the season at the NCAA Division II East Region Championship meet.

On Saturday, September 23, Lagno's teams will make their annual trek to the Matt St. James Cross Country Trails on the campus of Roberts Wesleyan College for the Harry F. Anderson Invitational, a meet that's been a fixture on the Wildcats' schedule for 10 years or more. On the men's side, senior standout Kevin Roginson (Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville North) will be looking to repeat as the race champion. He shaved more than 50 seconds off his previous career-best 8,000-meter time to win the 2016 race with a time of 25:32.6, setting a new school record for that distance in the process.

One week later, Daemen returns to the Mike Woods Invitational after a one-year hiatus from the event. The meet, hosted by the State University of New York at Geneseo, takes place inside Letchworth State Park.

As the calendar turns to October, the Wildcats will make their third consecutive appearance at the Canisius Alumni Classic slated for Saturday, October 14. The meet will be run at Delaware Park, just a short five-and-a-half mile jaunt from the Daemen campus. Both the men's and women's teams finished third among non-Division I teams competing in their respective races at this event in 2016.

That sets the stage for the East Coast Conference Championship meet on Saturday, October 21. Both the men's and women's teams have fared well in the past four years since joining the ECC. Neither team has finished worse than fourth with the Wildcat women hauling home three runner-up finishes, including the last two seasons. The site of this year's meet is yet to be determined and will be announced at a later date.

Saturday, November 4 will become a historic day in the annals of Daemen Athletics history as the Wildcats host the regional championship meet for the first time. More than 20 men's teams and more than 25 women's teams are expected to compete that day at Audubon Golf Course as they vie for the opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships. The top three qualifying teams in both races will advance to the national meet, and individual runners can qualify by being one of the top three finishers among runners not attached to a qualifying team. The Wildcat women finished just out of contention for a team berth with fourth-place performances in each of the last two seasons. Individually, Roginson narrowly missed a national championship berth after finishing sixth last season with a time of 31:54.6 in the 10,000-meter race.

The 2017 NCAA Division II National Championships take place on Saturday, November 18 in Evansville, Ind.

The Daemen women's team must reboot following the loss of two of the team's all-time greats: Mackenzie Donahue (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) and Hannah Rice (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora). Amy Trabert (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) returns for her senior season, and she figures to lead the team and its group of nine returners. Trabert has posted seven top-10 finishes in 19 career races, four of which came last season. Also back is red-shirt senior Katherine Robinson (Pasadena, Calif./Pasadena) and red-shirt junior Rebekah Zee (East Aurora, N.Y./Slippery Rock University). Robinson brings veteran experience with 18 collegiate races under her belt. Zee was among Daemen's top-five finishers in all seven meets last season, her first in a Daemen uniform.

The afore-mentioned Roginson emerged as the top runner on the men's team last season. After posting just one top-10 finish in his freshman and sophomore seasons combined, Roginson registered six such finishes in 2016, including a fifth-place performance at the conference championship meet which garnered him first team All-ECC honors. Also returning is sophomore Josh Bodnar (Fillmore, N.Y./Fillmore) and junior Timothy Poole (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) who figured in the scoring during Daemen's third-place finish at the ECC Championship meet.

Daemen men must deal with the graduation of its top runner - Jeremy Rushok (Akron, N.Y./Buffalo State College). But, Lagno's squad returns junior Kevin Roginson (Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville South) who emerged last season as a viable team leader. He recorded a career-best 8K time of 26:25.23 to finish in ninth place at last season's ECC Championships, earning second-team All-ECC honors in the process.

Lagno's athletes report to pre-season training camp on Monday, August 21.

For breaking news and continuing coverage of the Daemen men's and women's cross country teams, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenXC on Twitter.

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