The No. 30 SUNY Oneonta men's cross country team ran through the biting temperatures in Rochester today and came away with a fifth place finish at the NCAA Atlantic Region championships hosted by the University of Rochester.  The finish for the Red Dragons was its best ever at the regional meet, besting last year's showing by two places.  The Red Dragons put five runners in the top-37 to score 155 points overall.  The overall team championship went to St. Lawrence, who scored 63 points.
 
"We came in knowing that we were one of six teams battling it out for a ticket to nationals," said coach Angelo Posillico.  "Our men executed the race plan we discussed and it worked out well for them. We always think we can run better, but we are still going to celebrate setting our program's highest finish at a regional championship. I'm really proud of the three All-Region runners and how much confidence the men have run with all season."
 
Leading Oneonta with the best individual finish in program history was sophomore Anthony Lupia (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse).  Entering the meet, the best finish to date for Oneonta was Alex Grout's 26^th place finish in 2007.  Lupia was the 14^th overall individual in a time of 25:35 for the 8K course.  Lupia was as far forward as seventh place at the 4K split in the race.
 
Besides earning All-Region honors, which goes to the top-35 finishers, Lupia's finish will also put him in the mix to earn a qualifying spot as an individual for the NCAA cross country championships next weekend in Wilmington, Ohio.  If he goes, he would be the first men's cross country individual to qualify for the NCAA championships since 1977.
 
Joining Lupia as All-Region honorees were senior Mike Didas (Endwell/Maine-Endwell) and sophomore Jean-Paul Scott (Rochester/Fairport).  Didas and Scott finished 33^rd (25:55) and 35^th (25:59) respectively.  Didas made the biggest move during the race, moving up from 41^st to 28^th between the 2K and 4K splits.  Scott ran in the top 30 through the first 4K in the race before losing some ground over the last half of the race.
 
Right behind Scott in 36^th and 37^th place were teammates Charles Remillard (Peru/Peru) and David Busby (New Paltz/New Paltz).  Remillard covered the course in 26:00 flat while Busby ran 26:02.  Both runners made moves during the race.  Remillard was in 27^th place through the 4K split while Busby moved into the top-40 after the 2K mark.
 
Rounding out the top-7 for Oneonta today was senior David Bohunicky (Johnson City/Maine-Endwell) and junior Conor Murphy (Greenlawn/Harborfields) who ran in 79^th and 91^st overall.
 
The announcement for the 16 at-large berths for the NCAA championships next weekend is tomorrow afternoon.  A total of 32 teams make the championships with 16 of the berths being automatic from the top-two teams in each of the eight regional meets.