AMHERST, N.Y. -- The Daemen University men's and women's cross country teams will participate in six meets during the 2026 campaign, head coach Pete Gratien announced today. The Wildcats will race in four meets during the regular season before the East Coast Conference Championships and the NCAA Division II East Region Championships. 

Daemen will open the season at the Frank Dillon Memorial Invitational in Syracuse, N.Y. on Saturday, Sept. 12, hosted by Le Moyne University. This will be the seventh time in Daemen's NCAA Division II era (2015-present), and the first since 2023, that the Wildcats race in the season-opening Frank Dillon Memorial Invitational. The Wildcats are off for two weeks then resume the season on Saturday, Sept. 26 in Rochester, N.Y. at the prestigious Harry F. Anderson Invitational hosted by Roberts Wesleyan University at the Matt St. James Cross Country Trails.

The Wildcats run in two meets in the month of October, first at the Highlander Invitational hosted by Houghton University on Saturday, Oct. 10 in Houghton, N.Y. Daemen wraps up the regular season the next weekend at the Canisius Alumni Classic in Buffalo's Delaware Park on Saturday, Oct. 17, marking the sixth straight season that the Wildcats participate in the meet hosted by Canisius University. 

Daemen returns to Rochester, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 7 for the 2026 ECC Championships, hosted again by Roberts Wesleyan. The Wildcat men and women are both in the hunt for the program's first ever ECC title. Daemen's men have finished second in each of the past four seasons, while the women finished second for four straight years (2021-24) but placed fourth as a team in 2025. The Wildcats will race in the 2026 NCAA Division II East Region Championships on Saturday, Nov. 21 in Long Island, N.Y. hosted by Adelphi University. 

The Wildcat men return nine runners coming off a solid 2025 campaign that saw a second-place finish at the ECC Championships. Daemen returns four of their top five runners, including rising senior CJ Johnson (Baltimore, Md.) who became the first Daemen runner in program history to be named the ECC Runner of the Year with a first place finish at the ECC Championships. Johnson also became the first men's runner in Daemen cross country history to race at the NCAA Division II National Championships, earning an at-large bid to nationals after a seventh-place finish at the East Regional Championships. Ethan Keating (Wooster, Ohio) returns for his senior season after an impressive junior campaign in which he earned First Team All-ECC and USTFCCCA All-East Region honors. Simon Evans (Galway, N.Y.) and Ibrahim Hakizimana (Rochester, N.Y.) both earned all-conference accolades in their first year with the Wildcats, with Evans being named to the All-ECC First Team with a seventh place finish at the ECC Championships and Hakizimana earning Second Team All-ECC honors. 

After graduating four from the 2025 campaign, including three of the top four runners from a season ago, the Daemen women will look to find a new Wildcat to pace the team after losing Patsy Oberholzer and Christa Oates to graduation. Rising juniors Lia Brasacchio (Victor, N.Y.) and Kylie Piekarski (Lancaster, N.Y.) put together solid sophomore campaigns. Daemen's top returning runner from last season, Brasacchio finished as the second-place runner in two meets last year and the third-place runner four times while setting two PR's in 2025. Piekarski placed fourth among the Wildcats three times, third once and fifth twice in 2025. 2025 newcomers Grace Tag (North Tonawanda, N.Y.), Raegan Giardini (West Clarksville, N.Y.) and Teagan Jones (Lawrenceville, Pa.) look to improve upon their rookie campaigns this upcoming season.