SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's cross country opened its 2015 season today by running in the Le Moyne Alumni Short Course Invitational, finishing in fourth place out of nine competing teams with a total of 72 points.

SUNY Delhi topped the field with 41 points, led by race-winner Jack Hillenbrand who completed the course in 20:52.64, the only sub-21-minute time in the 6.2K race.  Delhi was followed by SUNY-Environmental Science and Forestry (48 points) and host Le Moyne College (68), the latter edging Daemen by four points.

The Wildcats were paced today by senior Jeremy Rushok (Akron, N.Y./Buffalo State College).  Rushok finished ninth in the race with a time of 22:46.00.  The performance today marked the fourth top-10 finish in Rushok's career.  He was also the race runner-up here at the same event last season.

Freshman Lucas Canales (Ithaca, N.Y./Ithaca) and sophomore Kevin Roginson (Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville North) each picked up top-15 finishes for the Wildcats as well.  Canales, competing in his collegiate debut, narrowly missed a top-10 finish, coming in 11th with a time of 22:54.41.  Roginson (23:01.01) wasn't far behind, finishing 13th.

Freshman Joseph Tracy (Malone, N.Y./Franklin Academy) and sophomore David DelValle (West Seneca, N.Y./West Seneca West) rounded out the Wildcats' scorers today.  Tracy (23:43.49) came in 19th with DelValle (23:45.87) hot in his heels for 20th place.

The race today also marked the head coaching debut of Daemen's Paul Lagno.  Lagno took the reins of the program earlier this summer from Jessica Gorski who stepped down to fulfill additional administrative responsibilities as the Associate Athletics Director for Internal Relations.

Lagno's squad will return to racing on September 19 at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational.

For continuing coverage on the Daemen men's cross country team throughout the season, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenXC on Twitter.