The Paul Smith’s College cross country teams pose following the YSCC Championships on Nov. 1. (Provided photo)

CONCORD, New Hampshire — The Paul Smith’s College men’s cross country team and host school, New Hampshire Technical Institute of Concord, New Hampshire, had quite a battle on the very windy course at the Yankee Small College Conference Championship on Nov. 1.

However, the Bobcats were able to secure the title by a single point, earning 34 points to NHTI Wildcats’ 35 points.

NHTI’s Eli Lemire carried home the men’s individual title in 28 minutes, 8 seconds on his home course, with Paul Smith’s Eliot Soderholm repeating as the runner-up to Lemire. Soderholm, of Reston, Virginia, won the title as a first-year student in 2023, and is only the second runner from the Paul Smith’s men’s team to earn YSCC All Conference honors three seasons.

The Bobats’ Bryce Shannon of Sparrow Bush placed third in 29:54, while Matthew Matis of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, placed sixth in 31:40 to round out the PSC men earning All Conference honors. AJ Esposito of West Charleston, Vermont, finished in 13th in 33:20. Brock Boissey of Cadyville rounded out the scoring five for Paul Smith’s, finishing in 35:13 to place 19th overall.

Aidan Minihan of Newark, Delaware, finished in 36:43 for 24th, while Reece Perry of Malone finished in 37:34 to place 25th. Although not among the scoring five, both Minihan and Perry were displacers, resulting in an increase in the point totals for three other schools. Tim James of Lancaster, Massachusetts, came in 39:15, followed by Noah Keys of LeRoy in 41:55, while Devin Stalnaker of Westernville finished in 46:36.

In the team scoring, Hampshire College placed third with 69, followed by Central Maine Community College with 93 and Albany Pharmacy with 115 points.

On the women’s side, despite the lack of a scoring team for this year’s YSCC Championships, the four runners from Paul Smith’s ran a competitive race in some extremely strong winds on the NHTI campus. The team has faced some challenges with numbers this season, due to long-term injuries, yet those who were able have soldiered onward.

While returning captain Brooklynn Shumway will remain on the sidelines for the remainder of the season with a broken arm sustained in a collegiate women’s hockey game, fellow captain Chloe Freund of Clinton has paced the team the past couple of weeks. Freund went out hard with the race leaders at the conference championships and earned her first YSCC All Conference Team honors with a fifth-place finish in 29:39. Joanna Kerchner of Reading, Pennsylvania, placed 13th in 32:30, followed by Madi Kirn of Columbus, Ohio, in 34:19. Olivia Bobbie of North Bangor rounded out the Bobcat finishers, coming in 34:32 in 23rd place.

Albany Pharmacy maintained a strong team throughout the fall season and won the YSCC women’s title with 21 points, followed by Word of Life in second with 36 points. The PSC women won the conference title in 2021 and then again in 2023 and 2024.

The Bobcats will be heading to Uniontown, Pennsylvania to take part in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Cross Country Nationals. Both the men and the women will field full teams, and the men’s team is in position to place in the top four on Saturday on this very hilly course on the Penn State — Fayette campus.