Bonnies Cross Country Teams Ready For 2024 Season

When it comes to the improvement of the St. Bonaventure running programs, the numbers don’t lie. 

The Bona men’s cross country team posted seven new individual top-20 8K program times last year and five new top-20 10K times – while, most impressively, 92 percent of the team set PRs during the season.

On the women’s side, the Bonnies logged 10 new top-20 program 6K marks while 88 percent of the roster clocked in new personal bests. 

As the 2024 season begins, the Bonnies have the goal of continuing to keep the needle of the program pointed directly upward.

“We feel the program has made considerable progress. Each year, the bar is raised,” St. Bonaventure head cross country/track coach Bob Macfarlane said. “Our last two years have been the best results the university has seen – both in cross and track. The progression rate for our teams has been outstanding.”

The Bonnies men’s team will have the task of replacing two of their top runners from the recent seasons – Clay Peets, the program’s record-holder in the 5K, 8K and 10K, will miss the fall semester before returning for track in the spring. Zane Courtwright, the team’s third-place runner at both Atlantic 10 and NCAA Regional championships, also graduated, as did Kieran Ryan. 

Still, the men’s squad returns 16 letterwinners from a year ago. 

Junior Aiden Scattergood jumped to second in the program record books in the 5K, 8K and 10K just behind Peets in every race length during his sophomore season – he posted a 15:30.2 5K time last year at the Little Three Championship and recorded an 8K of 24:51.9 at Gettysburg as well as a 31:51.7 10K mark in regionals. 

Scattergood and fellow junior Ethan Luce as well as senior James Fitzmaurice will serve as team captains this season. Luce placed fourth on the squad at Atlantic 10 Championships and set a program top-20 8K PR of 26:23 last year.

Another third-year Bonnie, junior Casey Malloy was the team’s fifth-place scorer at A-10s last year while sophomore Joshua Lopez qualified for both A-10s and regionals and was named an Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week during the season. 

Senior Colin McCarthy boasts program-top 15 marks in the 5K and 8K and is in his fourth season with the program. 

Junior Alex Ryan, who also has top-20 program times in every race length, as well as sophomore Lucas Catarella both qualified for A-10 Championships last fall as well.

Jared Deno and Owen Noecker are in their senior seasons and the junior class also includes Drew Carlson, Aiden Holt and Tyler Schott. Sophomores William McCarthy and Matthew Ryan return along with classmate Brendan Chapple who did not run cross country last year, but had a standout spring in track.

Eight freshmen join the roster: Nick Cribbet, Layne Haught, Aiden Konetsky, Kevin Renner, Nathan Sikorski, Carter Stevens, Sam Tomm and Blake Wenger.

For the Bonnies women’s team, a young squad is coming into its own in 2024.

Each of the team’s top-five finishers at last year’s A-10 Championship are back this fall.

Junior Mia Winters led the way for the team with the best finish for a Bonnies women’s student-athlete at the conference meet since 2014 and she jumped to third in the program record book with a 6K PR of 22:38.4 at the Lock Haven meet. 

Sophomore Meghan Lex made her collegiate debut with a fifth-place finish at the season-opening Little Three Championship last fall, leading the team with a 5K of 19:18. She battled injury during the year, but later jumped to sixth on the individual program record list with a 6K best of 22:55 at Gettysburg.

Katelyn Wilkes was also frequently near the head of the Bonnies pack during her freshman season, earning A-10 Rookie of the Week honors while placing in the team’s top seven in every meet. Her 6K PR of 23:09 jumped to 10th individually in program history.

Juniors Jenna Gregory and Molly Gipson have each been important contributors for the Bonnies in the past two seasons as well. Gregory leapt to second in program history with the top 6K time by a Bona’s women’s runner in nine years when she clocked in at 22:21.3 at Lock Haven last season. Gipson also has a top-20 PR in the 6K (23:49). Classmate Claire Cuneo finished in the team’s top three in every meet during her freshman season of 2022 and last year placed in the team’s top-seven in three meets. Her 5K PR of 19:02.8 at the Little Three two seasons ago still stands seventh in school history. 

Sophomore Jayne Gavin qualified for Atlantic 10 Championships and her 6K PR (23:53) is a program top-20 mark. 

Gregory and Winters are joined by seniors Olivia Ippolito and Camryn Cwiklinski as team captains this fall. 

Bona’s junior class also includes Faith Caldwell, Sarah Carroll and Adria Magnusson, who was third on the team and 11th overall at last year’s Little Three. Olean native Sara Thomas is a junior transfer who started her collegiate career at Saint Leo University in Florida after qualifying for states at Olean High. Chloe Fisher, Sam Hulme, Kylie Pylor and Gabriella Randazzo return for sophomore seasons.

Seven freshmen join the roster: Sophia Bille, Miranda Habshi, Brooke Hudnall, Alex Jensen, Madeline McKillop, Madison McMahon and Naina Slaughter.

For the first time this year, the Bonnies will have separate cross country and track rosters with the men’s roster at 24 athletes and the women’s cross roster 23 strong. 

This year’s teams will open the year with the traditional Little Three Championship 5K meet, this year hosted at Beaver Island State Park in Grand Island. 

A new meet – the Yellowjacket Invitational in Rochester – takes place on Sept. 21 while the month of September wraps up at the Lock Haven Invitational a week later. The squads will tune up for the conference meet at the Highlander Invitational (Oct. 12) and Aubrey Shenk Invitational in Gettysburg (Oct. 19) before heading to Mechanicsville, Pa. where the conference meet qualifiers will run in A-10 Championships (Nov. 2). NCAA Regionals are set for Nov. 15 in New Hampshire.