GENESEO, N.Y. - The Empire 8 announced its men's cross country All-Conference awards on Monday, Dec. 1, and SUNY Geneseo swept all three major honors.
Ryan Hagan brought home Runner of the Year honors,
Mario Verruto was named Rookie of the Year, and the coaching staff, led by head coach
Dan Moore, won Coaching Staff of the Year. Additionally, the Knights earned 12 All-Conference honors and
Emerson Comer was named to the Tomorrow's Leaders team for Geneseo.
Hagan enjoyed a tremendous season for the Knights, earning NCAA Division III All-American honors with a fourth-place finish at nationals in a time of 23:52.7, while winning the individual honor at the 2025 Niagara Region Championship by over 40 seconds in 24:11.7). Hagan was also the individual race winner at the Harry F. Anderson Invitational, was second at the Connecticut College Invitational and set a personal best over 8,000-meters with a time of 23:45.1 at the Paul Short Run against Division I student-athletes and broke 25 minutes in all five of his events this season. He was a four-time Empire 8 Runner of the Week in 2025.
Verruto ran a time of 27:15.1 over 8,000-meters to place 14th overall and earn All-Empire 8 second team honors at the 2025 E8 Championship. He also placed second overall in a season-best time of 26:07.7 at the Kara Hall Memorial Invitational hosted by SUNY Fredonia on Oct. 4 and recorded top-35 finishes at the Fisher-Rodenbeck Invitational, Yellowjacket Invitational and Canisius Alumni Classic.
The SUNY Geneseo coaching staff, led by head coach
Dan Moore and assistant coaches
Chris Popovici and
Kieran Sheridan, was honored as the 2025 Empire 8 Coaching Staff of the Year for the second straight season. Moore led Geneseo to its second straight Empire 8 Championship, the Niagara Region Champions and national runner-up honors at the 2025 NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championships on Nov. 22. Moore mentored a dozen all-league selections, seven All-Region honorees and All-Americans
Ryan Hagan (fourth place nationally),
Emerson Comer (15th nationally) and
Pierce Young (29th nationally). Hagan also won the individual title at the Niagara Region Championship, while Comer and Young were right behind in second and third.
The Empire 8 first, second and third team all-conference selections were determined at the championship meet on Nov. 1 from St. John Fisher University's Murphy Field Cross Country Course.
Thomas Blake,
Anson Butler,
Connor Hitt,
Kole Owens,
James Tette, and
Owen Willard earned First-Team honors,
Andrew Cox,
Owen Murphy,
Sean Verbosky, and
Mario Verruto picked up Second-Team recognition, while
Jack Hicks and
Ian Zehnder rounded out the All-Conference list on Third-Team.
One member of each team was named that institution's representative on the 2025 Men's Cross Country Tomorrow's Leaders Team. This team honors a student-athlete who has emerged as a leader not only on the field of play, but in the classroom and in the community. In addition, they "compete with honor and integrity" and have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportsmen, and Comer earned that recognition for the Knights.
Full press release from the Empire 8
