After opening the fall season plenty strong, new highs have been reached for Fordham in cross country. The men’s cross country team achieved their second and third team wins this weekend, bringing home victories from both the Tribe Open Meet in Williamsburg, Va. and St. John’s Fall Festival at Cunningham Park in Queens.

After opening the season with a second-place finish among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition in the home-field Fordham Fiasco, the men’s team won first place out of 17 teams at the C.W. Post Invitational at Brookville, N.Y., besting next-closest LIU Post by 18 points. The win was spearheaded by Patrick Burke, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’14, whose seventh-place finish was the team’s highest.

In their next most recent team win, Oct. 13 saw members of the team take to Virginia for the Tribe Open, where Nick Synan, FCRH ’13, won the individual race. The Rams had six runners in the top eight, with Synan posting a time of 25:29.4 in the eight kilometer race. Teammates Mike Turi, FCRH ’16, and Jonathan Annelli, FCRH ’15, rounded out the top three, taking second and third with respective times of 25:39.4 and 25:50.3. Kevin Harvey, FCRH ’14, Quincy O’Conner, FCRH ’16, and Ryan Polo, FCRH ’14, were the team’s other runners in the top eight.

Just one day after the Rams dominated at Williamsburg, the men’s team won once more at the 2012 St. John’s Fall Festival, again seeing a member of the team win top individual honors. Michael Belgiovine, FCRH ’14, finished first by a reasonable margin, besting teammate Joe Harnett, FCRH ’14, by over 20 seconds. Amazingly, the entire top-ten was populated by Fordham runners, leading to a 30-point margin of victory, with Fordham’s 15 points besting runner-up Hofstra’s 45.

In the wake of the team’s hugely successful weekend, it was announced Tuesday that Turi was named the Atlantic 10 (A-10) Men’s Cross Country Rookie of the Week. This brings Turi’s total of weekly awards to three, this being his second in a row, as well as the team’s fourth A-10 weekly honor. Just a week ago, the team swept the A-10 weekly awards, with Nick Synan being named Performer of the Week and Mike Turi being named Rookie of the Week.

The team’s next competition will be the big one, as they travel to Belmont Park in Philadelphia for the 2012 Atlantic 10 Championships, beginning at 10 a.m. on Oct. 27. The team has finished in the top four of every competition they have entered thus far this season. With such strong performances from across the board, coming from both seasoned veterans like Synan and rookies like Turi, the team can certainly expect some strong results.