Syracuse, N.Y. -- SUNY-ESF won three United States College Athletic Association national titles during the fall season, capturing championships in Division II women’s soccer and in both men’s and women’s cross-country, while Bryant-Stratton won a pair of Division I soccer championships.
The USCAA is a collection of 77 small schools and holds championships in 13 sports annually. The fall championships were held in Virginia Beach, Virginia, earlier this month.
SUNY-ESF also won a women’s cross-country title in 2018, while the men’s title was the school’s fifth, with the most recent one previously coming in 2014. The women’s title included two scorers from Section III in Chittenango’s McKenzie Dombroski and East Syracuse-Minoa’s Mary Roach. So did the men’s team in Fayetteville-Manlius’ Matthew Tripp and Jordan-Elbridge’s Sean Dristle.
Mike Melfi, a Henninger graduate who coaches both teams, was named the USCAA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.
The championship in women’s soccer was the school’s first. The ESF women’s soccer team is coach by Mandy DaRin, a former star at Liverpool High School. They beat Paul Smiths (N.Y.) College, 4-1 in the championship game and outscored their opponents 17-2 during their title run.
Bryant-Stratton won both national titles in Division I soccer. The title for the men’s program was its third, while the women’s program won its first.
The women’s team outscored its opponents 7-1 during its championship run. The championship match was a 1-0 victory over the University of Maine at Fort Kent. The men’s team outscored its opponents, 9-1, and also earned a 1-0 victory over the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
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