PURCHASE, N.Y. —
The Coast Guard Academy men's cross country team began their 2025 season by placing second in the Purchase College Invitational on Saturday.
Coast Guard had three of the race's top four finishers in the meet, including captain and overall champion
Paul Hobbs (Vacaville, Calif.). It was a tactical day for Hobbs, who gradually moved up the field throughout the race and only took the lead within the last half mile to finish the course in 19:30.9. Local product
Brendan Fant (East Lyme, Conn.) was right with Hobbs for most of the race before getting separated from his senior during the final 800 meters and eventually finishing third overall with a 19:43.5 pace.
James Kuduk (Harleysville, Pa.) kept a consistent pace after moving up well during the first mile of the race to clock in at 20:15.2 and finish fourth.
Rounding out the team's scorers was Hobbs' fellow captain
Gus Lempriere (Seattle, Wash.) in 13th;
Sam Myers (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) in 15th;
Carlos Garcia (Bristow, Va.) in 16th; and
Graham Fenn (Hyattsville, Md.) in 17th. Coast Guard ended up dropping a close one to their archnemeses from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, who beat out the Bears' team score of 36 by one point. The Mariners' top runner,
Luke Zweisler, trailed Hobbs by 5.6 seconds to finish as the runner-up.
"The men's team had a decent showing today. I saw a team that's in good shape and has huge upside in terms of what we're capable of," said head coach
Greg Ahnrud. "But we need to work on awareness and execution within the race itself. Kings Point ran an aggressive race and we didn't quite reel them back in before the finish line like we wanted to."
The race was the first match-up between the two schools in the annual Superintendents' Trophy series, a friendly competition between the Coast Guard and Kings Point. The majority of both schools' teams play each other during their respective season, with a point going to the winner of each match-up. The Bears women's cross country was able to even the score at 1-1 later in the day by winning their own race.
CGA men's cross country will be back on the course in two weeks time to compete at the Wesleyan University's Cardinal Invitational.
