Schurter's Sports

Year in Review: ICXCTF 2024-25 Season Recap

As the sun sets on another outdoor track season, the Ithaca College men’s cross country and track and field programs look to finish what has been a strong bounce back year for the program. On top of the rebound efforts this year, it has also been a reset year for the program, following several coaching changes during the previous summer.

In June, 2024, long-time head cross country and track and field coach Jim Nichols announced his retirement, following nearly 40 successful years with the program. Under Nichols, the Bombers were consistent contenders within the Liberty League and Empire8 Conferences, winning numerous conference championships across the cross country and both indoor and outdoor track and field seasons, respectively.

In late July, the Ithaca College athletics department announced that Erin Dinan, the women’s cross country head coach and distance coach for track and field, was going to assume the role of head coach for the men’s cross country program. Dinan said it was an honor to take on coaching both the men’s and women’s teams, but that it was a heavy task to fill the shoes of coach Nichols.

“Having the opportunity to work with him the last several years, I feel like I understand the vibe of the team and the legacy of the team,” Dinan said. “I really wanted to make sure that he knew I was committed to carrying on his traditions and the team’s traditions, but I was really excited to be able to work with the men’s team.”

Despite falling short of personal expectations, the men’s cross country team had a strong showing in Dinan’s first season at the helm. The Bombers’ highest finish of the season came at the Fredonia Pre-Regional meet, where the team placed second only behind powerhouse SUNY Geneseo. The Bombers also beat tough regional competition such as the University of Rochester and RIT. At the Liberty League Championships, Ithaca matched its 2023 results, finishing in sixth place and watching junior Ben Buffone earn Liberty League Honorable Mention with his 21st place finish.

At the Niagara Regional Championships, the men’s team finished in ninth place, just one position shy of its 2023 finish. While the Bombers were disappointed with their finish, Dinan said the team continued to stick together and trust the process following a long season.

“I was really impressed by the men’s team this year,” Dinan said. “It was a big transition…having had coach Nichols as their coach for the last several years I felt like my training was a little different than his. They’re very dedicated and passionate about training, but also being a teammate, and I think that’s a lot of coach Nichols’ legacy.”

Former team captain Patrick Bierach ‘24 noticed the strength of the team during this transition period. He said while it was a rough situation going into the season, the team had a positive outlook on its first season with coach Dinan at the helm. 

“When [Ithaca College Athletics] officially announced it, I was excited,” Bierach said. “Maybe the first couple of years there were going to be a lot of growing pains, but I had faith that she could get us through and transition the program as well as she could.”

As the fall transitioned into the winter, cross country shifted to track and the first full year without Nichols continued. Replacing him as the men’s track and field head coach was Stargell Williams. Williams was coming off working six years as a coach at Ursinus College for their track and field programs. He said he could not pass up the opportunity to lead the Ithaca College men’s track team.

“I knew right away that this was a dream job for me,” Williams said. “I knew that I was ready to lead a program. I knew I was prepared to take that next step, I just had to wait for the right opportunity to present itself.”

In just the third meet of the indoor season, the team saw its hard work pay off, as they secured the win at the Nazareth Conference Challenge meet. Later on in the season, the team’s comradery was on full display, as they hosted both the Liberty League and AARTFC Championships at the Glazer Arena. 

The energy was high and several personal best marks were achieved at the end of the indoor season. That included Buffone breaking the school record in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:52.45 seconds. Buffone also individually qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships with his run.

Going into the outdoor season, Jennifer Potter, women’s track and field head coach, was impressed by all that the men’s team had accomplished in Coach Star’s first season. She said it was great to see the program buy into the changes coming with a new coaching staff and that the transition went well for the team.

“People picked up right where they left off, embraced the change and embraced some things that were very different,” Potter said. “I was impressed with how they welcomed Coach Star and got on board very quickly with the concept of his style and the expectations that he had.”

Beginning in the outdoor season, the men’s leadership team sent out a form following each meet to select the team’s MVP from the past competition. Junior multi Noah McKibben said the team has continued to build trust amongst one another and the coaching staff since the change in leadership.

“With change comes improvement, and I feel like the team really improved over the course of the last year,” McKibben said. “That’s impressed me with how resilient we’ve become and how much we care about being a solid and good performing team.”

While the season winds down, some athletes are still competing, as they look to make one last push for nationals. Those individuals will compete at the All Atlantic Regional Championship hosted by Williams College on May 14-15.

With one year of new leadership in the books, McKibben said he is excited to see how the program can continue to build on what has become a solid showing in coach Star’s first season.

“What really excites me the most about next year is that coach Star is getting better every day at being a head coach, as it’s something new to him,” McKibben said. “He’s putting in the most work to guide us as a team. I’m really excited to see what kind of athletes he brings to the table and what kind of team we’ll become in the future.”

With a new recruiting class arriving in August, the men’s track and field and cross country team’s return to championship contention rolls on.

Field of Dreams: Old-Time Baseball Comes to Play with Games in Lititz

If you build it, they will come.

And in a nod to sports history, complete with uniforms, cigars and old equipment, the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia and Keystone Base Ball Club of Harrisburg revived 1860s-style baseball Saturday with an old-time matchup at Coleman Memorial Chapel in Lititz.

The chapel’s Community Day Baseball Games festivities began with a nod to Iowa’s Field of Dreams, as players emerged from an iconic backdrop, cornfields adjacent to center field.

With 1860s rules in effect, though, everything the modern fan knows about today’s game is irrelevant.

For example?

An out can be recorded if a ball is caught on one bounce. There are no strikes unless the batter swings at the pitch. If a player overruns the base, they can be tagged out.

Following along?

If not, that’s why there are historians on hand — to help people understand the background of the teams and the games they play. Rich Heinick is a historian with the Keystone Club and Pennsylvania 19th Century Baseball. He said these clubs were re-established in the 1990s and early 2000s to reinvent America’s pastime and its origins.

“We learned of the existence of an actual club from 1862 in the Harrisburg area,” Heinick said Saturday. “We adopted their identity, and since 2013, we’ve been marketing ourselves as the Keystone Baseball Club of Harrisburg.”

The Athletic and Keystone clubs are separate organizations, but they blend a rich history of baseball with community ties.

In a scheduled doubleheader Saturday, Harrisburg ran away with the first game, striking for six runs in the top of the first. After Philadelphia scored twice in the bottom of the inning, Harrisburg never looked back, tallying 15 total runs, as the game was shortened due to time constraints.

Despite the Game 1 loss, Philadelphia came back strong in Game 2 and lit up the scoreboard, earning a win to split the doubleheader. All games aside, though, it was an important moment for both teams and their players to recognize baseball’s timeline, dating back to the Civil War era.

Pierre LaRocco, a member of the Athletic club, said the organizations are about much more than just live games.

“It’s about remembering the history of the game of baseball and how it happened,” LaRocco said. “Our charter is teaching people the history of the game and doing that through playing the game (in an authentic manner), showing how the game was played.”

LaRocco said the authenticity of bringing the game to life means more as compared to being explained in written form.

“It’s one thing to read about games and … how they went,” LaRocco said. “There’s another thing to actually take those rules and say, ‘Hey this is what it actually looked like being played,’ and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Matt Albertson, another Athletics player, said there are multiple eras of rules that teams across the country abide by.

“In the northeast, we primarily play 1864 rules, which helps us dive in with the Civil War crew,” Albertson said. “Out west, they’ll primarily play by 1884 to 1886, rules because that’s when they started playing baseball more regularly.”

If you missed Saturday’s event in Lititz, the teams have more drivable dates on their schedules. Up next, Harrisburg will play at the NAHBBC Tournament in Rising Sun, Maryland, on Sept. 20, while Philadelphia will play Oct. 11 at the Local Nine in Cape May, New Jersey.