Bronx, N.Y. – (October 11, 2024) – The championship portion of the Fordham cross country season begins on Saturday with the running of the Metropolitan Cross Country Championship at 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.  Columbia is the defending men's champion, while St. John's is the defending women's champion.
 
Manhattan College has the most team (26) and individual men's champions (21) at the Metropolitan Championship, 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 eight of the last nine 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 seven championships held, with the most recent being back-to-back 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.