Syracuse debuts all but Knight in Beantown

By Adam Schneider of DyeStat

Fourth-ranked Syracuse dominated the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown with all but Justyn Knight in the lineup. All-American senior Colin Bennie was third (24:13.2) behind a pair from Illinois. The Orangemen had a 25-second gap among their five scoring runners. Illinois lost to Syracuse 35-56, but was led by junior Jesse Reiser (24:12.1) and sophomore Jonathan Davis (24:12.9), along with a 45-second gap among its five scorers. Third was Indiana with 106. 

At the Roy Griak Invitational, it was no surprise that All-American Jerrell Mock (24:52) and his team, 17th-ranked Colorado State, won the title by a 47-55 margin over Michigan State, with UCLA third at 63. The bigger surprise was that Rams senior Grant Fischer (11th) was not there with Mock at the front. Fischer was 12th in last year’s Division 1 10,000-meter final. Colorado State still had all five scorers in the top 17, with a 56-second spread.

Big meets this weekend: 

9/29 Stanford, Oregon, Washington, BYU, and Portland at Bill Dellinger invitational

9/29 Colorado, Eastern Kentucky, Arkansas, Washington State, Southern Utah, Alabama, Texas, UTEP, Notre Dame, Cal and Florida State at Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational

9/29 Iona and Georgetown at Paul Short Run

9/30 Colorado and Colorado State at Colorado Rocky Mountain Shootout

9/30 Michigan at Indiana Sam Bell Invitational

9/30 Oklahoma State and Mississippi at Cowboy Jamboree

9/30 Arkansas at Chile Pepper Festival

9/30 Northern Arizona, Boise State, Wisconsin, Furman, Eastern Kentucky, Princeton, Illinois and Louisville at Greater Louisville Classic

Top 20 (last week’s ranking)

1. Arkansas (1)

2. Colorado (2)

3. Northern Arizona (3)

4. Syracuse (4)

5. BYU (5)

6. Stanford (6)

7. Iona (7)

8. Furman (8)

9. Wisconsin (9)

10. Iowa State (10)

11. Oregon (11)

12. Alabama (12)

13. Washington State (13)

14. Oklahoma State (14)

15. Eastern Kentucky (15)

16. Virginia (16)

17. Southern Utah (17)

18. Colorado State (20)

19. Middle Tennessee State (18)

20. Boise State (19)

Watch list: Illinois, UTEP, Portland, Washington, UCLA, Georgetown, Cal, New Mexico, Mississippi, Princeton, Florida State, Texas