Soderholm, of Reston, Virginia, finished the challenging course in 27 minutes, 46 seconds, following a race plan that he and coach Jim Tucker established ahead of time.

As an extremely strong hill runner, Soderholm focused on powering up each of the steep hill climbs, which paid off as he was able to catch the younger runners who likely went out too fast at the start, and then reduce the runners ahead of him to a single athlete at the end of the first 4K lap.

The relentless approach worked on Saturday, as New Hampshire Technical Institute’s Eli Lemire was unable to close the gap and finished in second place with a time of 27:53. Lemire won the national championship as a freshman last year, and also won the Yankee Small College Conference title last weekend on the NHTI course.

The Bobcats’ Mat Matis (32:41) of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, caught fellow Smitty, Bryce Shannon (32:42) of Sparrow Bush during the second lap of the 4K course, and they worked together to finish in 30th and 31st place, respectively.

Paul Smith’s Morgan Cheney, left, and Chloe Freund approach the finish during the USCAA Women’s 6K National Championships in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.(Provided photo)

Brock Boissey of Cadyville finished fourth among the Smitties in 36:01 to place 42nd overall, followed by captain, Aidan Minihan of Newark, Delaware, in 36:40 in 44th. Rounding out the PSC men’s finishers were Reece Perry of Malone, in 39:14, Tim James (Lancaster, MA/Minuteman Regional Vocational HS) in 39:14 and senior captain, Noah Keys of LeRoy in 45:59.

SUNY ESF won both the women’s and men’s national team titles with scores of 15 and 33 points, respectively. NHTI men finished second in the men’s event, the team’s highest performance at nationals ever with 86 points. Christendom College finished third with 88 points, followed by Williamson with 108 and Paul Smith’s in fifth with 112 points. Sixteen colleges and universities were represented in the men’s 8K with 65 athletes finishing the race.

In the women’s 6K championships, Joanna Kerchner of Reading, Pennsylvania, led the Bobcats from the start for the first time this season, and this paid off as she ran the 6K in 29:09, her best time this season, to finish in 22nd place in the USCAA national championships.

Morgan Cheney of Prattsburgh finished second for PSC with a time of 31:37 to finish in 35th place, followed closely by team captain Chloe Freund of Clinton in 31:38.

Olivia Bobbie (34:56 ) of North Bangor and Madi Kirn (35:08) of Columbus, Ohio, ran most of the 6K event together to round out the scoring five for Paul Smith’s. Both Kirn and Cheney were sidelined for the majority of the season due to injuries, and with the addition of Bobbie, Paul Smith’s was able to field a scoring team in the final two weeks of the season. As a team, they finished in sixth place with 126 points at the USCAA Nationals. Sixty runners from 16 colleges and universities took part in the event.

Brooklynn Shumway of Bloomingdale was recognized by the USCAA as the Women’s XC Student Athlete of the Year. Shumway has maintained a solid 4.0 cumulative GPA while majoring in Natural Sciences and is a three-sport athlete, including women’s ice hockey and snowshoeing, to go along with running cross country. Shumway was unable to attend or participate due to an injury suffered during a hockey game a couple of weeks ago, so the entire women’s team accepted the award in her absence.