The College of Staten Island men's cross-country squad made their first ever trip to the NCAA Regionals this weekend, fresh off of their first-ever CUNYAC Championship two weekends ago.  The Dolphins did not walk away with any hardware this afternoon, but the proud bunch led the CUNYAC contingent and raced to a 34th place finish in the meet, which was attended by nearly 300 runners at SUNY-Geneseo.

The small Dolphins squad came in with more personal goals in mind, and perhaps most importantly, get their first taste of national caliber running on the big scene.  The meet in Rochester did exactly that for the team, as all seven Dolphins got to enjoy the experience while also ending their season at the top of their games on the terrain.

To no surprise, CSI was led by the performance of Andrew Pate, who once again placed first for the Dolphins overall with an exceptional time of 28:33.10.  Next in was a pair of CSI freshmen in Justin Mills and Kenneth Morella.  Mills was in at 29:19.60, while Morella was a little over a minute behind at 30:19.90.  Samuel Obisanya was next at 30:56.00 while Khaled Halwani was the final CSI scorer at 31:20.2.

CSI's non-scorers were Richard Ruggiero (33:43.70) and Patrick Kettyle (36:15.50).  SUNY-Cortland won the meet outright with just 37 points, taking the silver was New York University, while the bronze went to host SUNY-Geneseo.  Cortland junior Nick Marcantonio won the meet with an exceptional time of 25:03.50.

CSI finished with 1,061 total points, which was seven points lower than CUNYAC-rival John Jay, which finished in 36th.  For Head Coach Robert Russo, the initial run at the NCAA's gave the team a good taste of what can be in store in the future.

"It was a good race and a nice experience for us," said Russo.  "We have a lot of returning talent coming back in the future and we definitely want to be a part of this field in the future."

For Russo, this final race was one to grow on for sure.  "I am very proud of all we have accomplished this year.  It's a great stepping stone for our men's program and we can certainly build on this performance moving forward."

CSI won their first-ever CUNYAC Championship two weekends ago at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, defeating John Jay College by just a single point in the closest meet ever.  The Dolphins will miss champion and CUNYAC MVP Pate to graduation, as well as Shawn Cybulska but does stand to bring back the rest of its roster in 2014.