TROY, NY – The US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) has announced its 2022 NCAA Division III Cross Country National Coaches Preseason Polls, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men’s team ranks 24th of the 35 – school directory.
The engineers who are coached by John Lynch, are coming off a season in which they qualified for the NCAA championship, where they finished 14th in the nation. They also won their fifth straight Liberty League Championship meeting, finished two second places, and finished third in the 26-school NCAA Mideast Regional Championship.
Of the seven people who rode at the Nationals in Louisville, five are returning, led by seniors Matt Lecky (Middletown, CT / Middletown). He finished first on the team and 38th overall to win the All-America, culminating in a campaign in which he won four events, including the Liberty League Championship Meet, and was named Conference Runner of the Year.
second grader Vincent Simonetti (Massapequa, NY / Massapequa), the 2021 Liberty League Rookie of the Year, finished third on team and 86th overall in the NCAA event. His other results included fifth place at the Liberty League Championship and two top 15 finishes.
Jason Gibbons (Northport, NY / Northport), a senior, Kory Kennedy (Littleton, CO / Heritage), a junior, and Stephen Spreizer (Smithtown, NY/Smithtown West), a graduate student, is also returning after competing in Kentucky.
They are part of a roster that includes five graduate students, eight seniors, seven juniors, three sophomores and 10 freshmen.
RPI, third in the region, opens the season just a point behind Johns Hopkins University for No. 23 and less than 10 points from No. 21 Tufts University. George Fox University is 25th, 17 points behind Rensselaer.
Engineers begin their 2022 roster on Friday when they host the College of Saint Rose and Russell Sage College at a meeting in Troy. The race starts at 5:15 p.m.
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