GENESEO, NY (November 14, 2015) – The Vassar College men's cross country team improved seven positions from a 22^nd place finish in 2014, taking 15^th as a team at the NCAA Atlantic Regionals Saturday afternoon. The meet was hosted by SUNY Geneseo and was run over an 8k course at Letchworth State Park.

The Brewer men were tested Saturday with a muddy track that made times a bit slower than normal, but VC still managed to move up seven spots from last year's Regional performance. Vassar also knocked off Liberty League foe Rochester Institute of Technology by 11 points, as VC chalked up 449 points on the afternoon.

The Brewers were 19^th after the first 2k split marker as a team, but kept their pack together and moved all the way up to 13^th after the opening 5k. The final split marker came at the 6.6k spot of the course, VC had dropped back to 15^th but was just one point behind Cortland for the 14^th position as a team. In the end, VC finished 16 points behind the Red Dragons for the next spot in the standings.

One of the storylines for Vassar College coming in was if sophomore Michael Scarlett (Cambridge, MA/Cambridge Rindge and Latin) would become the first runner since Avi Kramer in 2004 to pace VC in every race he ran in an entire season. The answer was a resounding yes, as the sophomore standout fired through the finish line 38^th overall with a time of 26:19.3.

Another late development this season for the Brewers has been the emergence of sophomore Jesse Schatz (Mount Joy, PA/Lancaster Mennonite). Schatz continued to climb up the Vassar rankings Saturday, as he finished second among VC runners with a time of 27:12.8 for 94^th place. The time was the second-fastest time of the year for Schatz, who climbed all the way from 10^th place for VC runners back in the second race of the season.

Freshman Luke Arsenault (Branford, CT/Branford) ended his first season with the Brewers by notching a top 100 finish, placing 98^th with a time of 27:15.9. With the third-place finish for Vassar, Arsenault registered his seventh top four placing for VC, scoring in each meet he ran as a freshman.

Right behind Arsenault was sophomore Jack Yaworsky (Clinton, NY/Clinton), who was 105^th out of the 288 runners with a time of 27:20.2, while freshman Pedro Millard (Brooklyn, NY/Brooklyn Technical School) rounded out the scoring for the Brewers with a time of 27:30.0.

Senior Colin Hepburn (Rockville, MD/Edmund Burke School) concluded his Vassar career on the cross country course Saturday with a time of 27:58.8 for 146^th place, and sophomore Philip Brown (West Simsbury, CT/Simsbury) was six seconds behind Hepburn with a 28:04.2.

"We went into the meet hoping that if we ran to the ability that we have demonstrated all season, the men could finish anywhere from the No. 15 to No. 18 spot," said head coach James McCowan. "That's where we finished, so respectable finishes. Big improvement from last year. Every year is a new team. We are building this young team up and I'm proud of them. Good efforts."