BROOKVILLE, N.Y. - Senior Jeremy Rushok (Akron, N.Y./Buffalo State College) and sophomore Kevin Roginson (Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville North) each earned top-10 finishes to lead the Daemen College men's cross country team to a fourth-place showing at the East Coast Conference Championships held this morning on the campus of Long Island University Post.

Daemen accumulated 113 points in the team standings, finishing in fourth for the second-straight year at the conference championship meet.  Daemen's total was good enough to edge fifth-place Saint Thomas Aquinas College (124 points).  

Roberts Wesleyan College placed all five of its scorers in the top 10 finishers individually, compiling just 28 points to run away with their second-straight ECC crown.  Molloy College (58 points) and the host LIU Post (74 points) rounded out the top three teams today.

RWC was paced by race-winner, and thus ECC Runner of the Year, Thomas Rodger who won today with a time of 25:03.94.  Rodger edged Molloy's Michael Darnell (25:08.86) and Connor Gallagher (25:10.58) who finished second and third, respectively.

Rushok finished in eighth place, narrowly off a school-record pace, completing the 8K course in a career-best time of 26:24.83.  Rushok's time shaved more than 20 seconds of his previous career best of 26:47.1, recorded at the Mike Woods Invitational on October 4, 2014, as he chased the Brett Smith's school-record time of 26:22.39.  Rushok has now finished as Daemen's top scorer in 10 consecutive races, and in 11 of the Wildcats' last 12 outings, dating back to the beginning of the 2014 season.

Not to be outdone was Roginson who recorded his career-best time of 26:25.23 to finish in ninth place.  For their efforts, Rushok and Roginson earned second-team All-ECC honors.  The league awards first-team honors to finishers one through seven, and second-team honors to finishers eight through 14 at today's race.  It's the first all-conference accolade for both Rushok and Roginson.  Rushok finished 15th at this event last season, just out of range for all-conference recognition.

Rounding out Daemen's scorers today were sophomore David DelValle (West Seneca, N.Y./West Seneca West), freshman Joseph Tracy (Malone, N.Y./Franklin) and junior Matt Cregan (Syracuse, N.Y./Solvay) who finished 35th, 36th and 37th, respectively.