Kevin Roginson became the first Daemen runner to earn All-Region honors at the NCAA Division II level by virtue of his sixth-place finish today

Men's Cross Country 11/5/2016 2:14:00 PM Mike Miranto, Associate A.D. For Communications

Roginson Just Misses National Championship Bid For Men's Cross Country

Daemen Junior Finished Sixth At East Region Championship Meet

HOPKINTON, N.H. - Daemen College men's cross country star Kevin Roginson (Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville North) narrowly missed out on an invitation to the NCAA Division II National Championships after finishing in sixth place at the 2016 NCAA Division II East Region Championship held today at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds. Roginson's finish paced the Wildcats to a 13th-place finish out of 23 competing teams from the region which is comprised of the East Coast Conference, Northeast-10 Conference and Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. Daemen, which scored 406 points in the team standings, was making just its second appearance at the event after finishing 17th out of 28 competing teams in 2015.

American International College of the NE-10 claimed its second straight regional championship, and its third in the last four seasons, after scoring just 49 points in the team standings. AIC placed all five of its scorers in the top-25 finishers, including four in the top-12. AIC's Leakey Kipkosgei (Kapsabet, Kenya) paced the field of 169 runners by completing the 10K course in 31:05.3. Kipkosgei finished second on the same course at the regional meet last season.

Fellow NE-10 members Stonehill College (80 points) and Bentley University (98 points) finished second and third, respectively, to wrap up the three team berths to the national championship meet which is set for November 19 in St. Leo, Fla. East Coast Conference champion Roberts Wesleyan College was the top ECC team again today, finishing in sixth place.

The top three individuals from non-qualifying teams also picked up their bids to the national championship meet. Those went to Southern New Hampshire University's Nacho Hernando-Angulo (Logrono, Spain) and Franklin Pierce University's Dage Minors (Hamilton Parish, Bermuda) and Aidan Gilbride (East Kilbride, Scotland) who finished second, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Roginson came in one spot out of contention, completing the course in 31:54.6, some four seconds behind Gilbride. Despite the disappointment of missing a national championship bid, the performance marked an incredible improvement for the Daemen junior who finished 47th here last season with a time of 33:20.05. It also marked Roginson's fifth top-10 finish of the season (out of seven total races), and is the best-ever individual finish by a Daemen runner at the East Region Championship. He becomes the first Daemen runner to garner All-East Region honors which go to the top-25 finishers in today's race.

Josh Bodnar (Fillmore, N.Y./Fillmore) and Nigel Cordulla (Cheektowaga, N.Y./John F. Kennedy) each posted top-100 finishes for the Wildcats today. Bodnar, a 5-foot-8 freshman, finished in 85th place with a time of 34:59.8. Cordulla, a senior competing in the final race of his career, finished 94th with a time of 35:22.4. It marked the seventh time this season that both Bodnar and Cordulla had figured in the scoring for the Wildcats.

Sophomore Timothy Poole (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) and senior Matt VanDeMortel (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) rounded out the scorers for the Wildcats, finishing 115th and 135th, respectively. Senior Mike Capestrani (Jamestown, N.Y./Jamestown) also competed for Daemen today, concluding his career with a 140th-place finish.

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

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Players Mentioned

Mike Capestrani: 6' 1"; Senior

Nigel Cordulla: 5' 9"; Senior

Timothy Poole: 5' 11"; Sophomore

Kevin Roginson: 5' 10"; Junior

Matt VanDeMortel: 5' 10"; Senior

Josh Bodnar: 5' 8"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Mike Capestrani
: 6' 1"; Senior

Nigel Cordulla
: 5' 9"; Senior

Timothy Poole
: 5' 11"; Sophomore

Kevin Roginson
: 5' 10"; Junior

Matt VanDeMortel
: 5' 10"; Senior

Josh Bodnar
: 5' 8"; Freshman