By: Scott Eddy, Assistant Athletics Director for Strategic Communications
CEDARVILLE, Ohio – Redshirt senior Clay Peets captured all-conference honors, leading the way for the St. Bonaventure men's cross country team on a crisp morning at the Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championships.
As a team, the Bonnies placed 13th in the conference meet.
Peets, who posted three meet victories during the regular season, ran near the front of the pack throughout Saturday's race. With the temperature hovering under 50 degrees at race time, the fifth-year Bonnie ran the first 3K in an 8:52 split, moving forward in the field as the race continued. At the finish line, he completed the 8K course in 24:23.4 which was good for 14th in the field of 128 competitors.
By taking a top-15 standing, Peets becomes Bona's first men's runner to earn Atlantic 10 All-Conference accolades with both the best finish and time in program history at the conference championships.
Bonnies redshirt senior Clay Peets accepts his Atlantic 10 All-Conference award at Saturday's meet.
While the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course which again hosted the A-10 Championships is one of the top courses in the region, it has never proved conducive to fast times due to a challenging layout. That proved true again on Saturday, though GW's Michael Bohlke was undeterred with a winning time of 23:46.4 as one of three runners to break the 24-minute barrier. Loyola Chicago defended its team crown with five finishers in the top nine of the running order.
Bona's average time of 25:53 represents its best in an A-10 Championship meet, improving on the 25:59 the squad posted at this course two seasons ago.
Sophomore Nathan Sikorski was next in line for the Bonnies, crossing the stripe at 26:00.9 for 86th overall. He improved his finishing position at A-10s by 30 spots over his freshman year.
A trio of Bonnies ran together for much of the race as Sikorski was just ahead of junior teammates Joshua Lopez and William McCarthy who also took personal best A-10 Championship finishes of 89th and 93rd at 26:05.6 and 26:14.4 respectively. Lopez improved his finishing position by 26 spots over last year and 44 positions over his A-10 debut on this course in 2023. McCarthy, meanwhile, was up 16 positions from last year.
Graduate student Drew Carlson came home in 26:39.7 to finish the team scoring while sophomore Aiden Konetsky (26:46.8) and senior Casey Malloy (27:03.9) were displacers for the Bonnies.
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH BOB MACFARLANE
"While we didn't finish as high as we were capable of, our athletes showed a lot of heart and resilience throughout the race and the season. Clay Peets' performance was a major highlight of the day finishing 14th in a very talented field and earning All-Conference honors, the first male in program history to do so, is a tremendous accomplishment. It's a reflection of his hard work and the continued progress of St. Bonaventure cross country as a whole. We'll use this experience to build and come back even stronger next week at Northeast Regional meet in New Hampshire."
UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure will take its top finishers to the NCAA Northeast Regional meet in Hopkinton, N.H. on Friday, Nov. 14.
BONNIES RESULTS
14. Clay Peets – 24:23.4
86. Nathan Sikorski – 26:00.9
89. Joshua Lopez – 26:05.6
93. William McCarthy – 26:14.4
114. Drew Carlson – 26:39.7
118. Aiden Konetsky – 26:46.8
121. Casey Malloy – 27:03.9
124. Alexander Rennick – 27:24.3
126. Layne Haught – 27:36.9
127. Ethan Luce – 27:50.3
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