TROY, N.Y. - For the second consecutive season, each of the Liberty League year-end men's cross country awards have been won by student-athletes or staff members from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Senior Matt Lecky has been named the Runner of the Year for the second straight time, Justin Cascio has been chosen as the Rookie of the Year, and John Lynch and his assistants garnered Coaching Staff of the Year - for the sixth straight season.

Lecky's repeat marks the sixth consecutive season the Engineers have had the Runner of the Year. The 2020 campaign was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Joe Domanico shared the honor in 2019, Grant O'Connor won it in 2018 and 2017, and Ben Fazio was the recipient in 2016. RPI won the conference title in each of those seasons, as it did in 2022.

In addition to winning the Liberty League Championship Meet, Lynch led the squad to a school-record ninth place finish at the NCAA Championship as an at-large selection, a runner-up at the NCAA Mideast Regional, and first at four other meets, including the multi-divisional Siena College Cross Country Invitational. 

A second-year captain, Lecky (Middletown, CT / Middletown) was 11th of 294 competitors at the Division III championship meet with an 8k time of 25:12.5. He was second at the 165-runner NCAA Mideast Regional (25:18.2) as well as the Liberty League meet (24:51.9), which included 109 individuals. Lecky earned the win at the 323-competitor Rowan Inter-Regional (24:15.1) and was runner-up at the multi-divisional Siena Invitational (24:56.3), which had 195 runners.

He was the Liberty League Performer of the Week three times, All-Liberty League First Team, All-Region, and All-America.

A freshman, Cascio (Burlington, CT / Lewis S Mills) ran in four events and was an alternate for both the NCAA Mideast Regional and NCAA Championship. He finished in 18th place at the Siena event (25:51.8) as well as at the Liberty League Championship (25:48.4), defeating the next closest freshman by 38 seconds. He garnered All-Liberty League Honorable Mention - the only freshman to earn post-meet honors - and was selected as the Liberty League Rookie of the Week twice. 

Cascio follows teammate Vincent Simonetti as the conference Rookie of the Year.

Lynch, who has now been honored in half of his 12 seasons, was aided by Karina Bolton '19, Fazio '17, Allison Thayer '18 and Austin Turner '19. Also the women's head coach, Lynch has earned the Staff of the Year award four times with that squad, including this season.