2025 Clarkson University Cross Country Preview

Schuyler Meyer

Cross Country | 8/29/2025 1:19:00 PM

Last year's top runners are back for the Clarkson University Cross Country team this fall as the Golden Knights look to move up the leaderboard in both the Liberty League and at the NCAA Mideast Regionals this November.

Guided by first-year head coach Dana Hatton, Clarkson will serve as host for the Liberty League Championship on the first day of November, but will do so down Route 11 at St. Lawrence University. That course will truly be the home away from home for the Green and Gold, as Clarkson and SLU, at the very least, will compete on the course three times in less than two months.

On the men's side, the Knights will miss both Riley Sawyer and Tyler Nickels, with the former consistently trimming time off his 8000-meter times and the latter putting up finishing times that would make a metronome proud. However, the next three finishers for Clarkson at the NCAA Mideast Regionals in 2024 are back for the fall. Junior Drew Reigelsperger has been a top performer for the Knights in his first two seasons and averaged 26 minutes, 50.3 seconds for his 8000-meter races a year ago. Sophomore Frank Consolazio saw all of his times finish within 60 seconds of one another, averaging a time of 27:11.7. Classmate James Lynch also got better as the season went on for the Knights, placing inside the team's top five in both the conference and regional meets with times separated by only six-tenths of a second.

In the early time trials from preseason, sophomore Matthew Clarner, a standout from the Nordic Ski team, and first-year collegian Finley Knappe have also stood out. Evan Baird, Kaleb Swartley, and Caleb Tribotte also had solid times a year ago to provide some depth to the team's potential scorers.

On the women's side, the Golden Knights got a boost from the return of Gianna Capoccia. The graduate student has been slowed by injuries over the course of her time in Potsdam, but she has proven to be the team's top runner when healthy. In 2023, Capoccia competed in four 6000-meter events with an average finish time of 25:14.9 and last year in only three races she was at 24:55.9 thanks to a career-best 24:16.4 in Pennsylvania.

Junior Alexandra Simon improved dramatically as the season went on in 2024, something that mirrored her first collegiate season. The two fastest times of Simon's career have come at the NCAA Mideast Regionals, where she finished as the team's top performer a year ago and finished the season with an average time of 25:36.6. Classmate Skylar Francis is also likely to be in the team's top five consistently after averaging a time of 26:11.6 in 2024.

Others that may make their way into the top five on a regular basis are junior Kelly Lahiff, who has run at the last two Liberty League Championships and NCAA Mideast Regionals for the Knights, as well as newcomers Janneke Baks and Meagan Speizer, a pair of first-years that have produced solid results in preseason.

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