At the John Reif Memorial Invitational in Ithaca, New York, Syracuse runners showed improvement from previous weeks in the last regular season event before ACC championships.

After a disappointing finish at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational last week, the Orange performed well at a smaller event, competing against only Cornell and SUNY Cortland.

For the men, junior Keith McAteer (16:19.9) finished eighth overall in the 5000-meter, followed closely behind by freshman Matt Dragon (16:31.8), who shaved almost 30 seconds off of his previous 5k time (16:58.7) at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown in September.

For the women, three of the four racers finished in the top ten. Redshirt junior Ryley Higgins (18:42.2) placed third, the highest finish of her collegiate career. Redshirt junior Maggie Toczko (18:57.3) finished fourth. Her time in Ithaca was 41 seconds faster than at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown. Sophomore Elizabeth Cultra (19:04.8) finished eighth and set a personal record at the collegiate level. Redshirt sophomore Abigail Walsh (19:39.4) finished 16th, putting all four Orange women runners in the top half of finishers at the event.

Syracuse’s top runners did not race today in preparation for ACC championships on Nov. 1 next week when the Orange men will try to claim the title after a second place finish in 2018.