Bronx, N.Y. – (October 6, 2023) – The championship portion of the Fordham cross country season begins on Saturday with the running of the Metropolitan Cross Country Championship, which for the first time in a long time, the Championship will not be held at Van Cortlandt Park but will move to Branch Brook Park in New Jersey.
The meet will consist of a five-mile (8K) race for the men with a 5K race for the women. The first race is off at 10:00 AM with live results for the meet can be found on
ViperTiming.com.
The Metropolitan Cross Country Championship has been held consistently since the first men's championship in 1927, while the first edition of the women's championship was in 1985.
Manhattan College has the most team (26) and individual men's champions (21), while Columbia University has the most team titles for the women at 17 with Rutgers University having the most individual women's winners at 13.
For the men, Fordham has nine team titles, which includes five since 2014 with the most recent last season. In addition to being the defending team champion, the Rams have had the men's individual winner in each of the last eight championships held with no repeat winners. Those winners include Quincy O'Connor (2014), Jonathan Annelli (2015), Brian Cook (2016), Thomas Slattery (2017), Ryan Kutch (2018), Nicholas Raefski (2019), Brandon Hall (2021), and
Nathan Bezuneh (2022).
For the women, Fordham has the second-most team titles with 10 and have captured four of the last six championships held, including the last two in 2021 and 2022. Bridget Alex was the most recent individual winner for Fordham in 2021, joining former Rams Lauren Gubicza (1991 & 1992) and Jeanine Radice (1987) as a Metropolitan Champion.
