On Saturday, Oct. 12, the Hamilton Men’s Cross Country team dominated at their home meet, the Hamilton College Invitational, where they boasted eight of the top ten runners in the field. The Continentals accumulated just 20 points on their home turf, outscoring the second place Utica University team by 32 points.

Alex Badami ’26 was the frontrunner for the Hamilton squad, running a time of 25:32 and earning a second place finish in the race, behind Utica’s Bennett Melita ’27. Badami outlined what some of his personal expectations were going into the invite. “This was the last 8k we race this season before championships, so my goal was to try and simulate what those meets are going to feel like, while making the right decisions during the race when it’s really hard,” he said.

One of the invite’s popular traditions is the reward that runners receive for performing well individually — each runner in the top ten of the race is awarded a pie at its conclusion. “Of course we wanted to win, but the real goal was to try to get as many guys into the top ten as possible and get as many pies as possible,” Badami said.

The Hamilton men’s team won eight out of the ten pies that were up for grabs. One of the Continental runners to win a pie was Liam Card ’27, who finished third in the race with a personal best time of 26:40. Card explained some of the other positives that the team took away from the race, on top of their dominant performance.“I think we performed well. I really liked how we worked as a pack. No one ran alone for a long time during that race, which is something that we have worked on in practice,” Card said.

Of the Hamilton runners to place, Brady Armstrong ’28 finished fourth overall with a time of 26:43, while senior captain Eddie Trenk ’25 followed closely behind, clocking in at 26:47 for fifth place in the race. Andrew Greden ’27 ran a time of 27:05, a personal best as he placed sixth. Benjamin Habler ’28 finished 5 second later to grab seventh place. Hamilton had 14 of the top 20 runners alongside their domination of the top ten.

Trenk discussed how this meet is unique compared to others that the team has run thus far in the season. “This meet was unique for us because it had significantly fewer runners, which allowed us to practice running with teammates and race analytically without getting caught up in the adrenaline of being in a crowd,” he said.

The meet was special for another reason as well. The Hamilton College Invitational is one of three home meets that the Continentals host each fall. Trenk commented on the way that home races are different from other meets on the schedule.“The home meets are always special because we spend so much time training on our home course that we are much more comfortable with it than the opposing teams,” he said.

Men’s Cross Country head coach Brett Hull also explained how staying home is often beneficial for the runners on meet day. “Home meets save us from the stresses of travel. I feel that the athletes are very familiar with their home course and this allows them to go into the race with more confidence,” Hull said.

This invite took place only three weeks before the NESCAC Championships, which are set to take place on Nov. 2 at Bowdoin College. Coach Hull talked about how the nature of the Hamilton Invite will set the team up for postseason competition: “Our runners were able to experience a fast first mile which will prepare them for the fast first mile of championship races. It also gave us the opportunity to practice pack running.”

Card shared similar sentiments regarding the idea of pack running, and how having this team strategy as a strength will allow the Hamilton runners to be even more successful throughout the remainder of the season. “I think that the meet taught us that we can really run well as a pack working off of each other, which will help us to close the gap between our first and fifth runner and the gap between our first and seventh runner moving forward into the postseason,” he said.

Hamilton Cross Country will host their final home meet, the Hamilton College Tune-Up, on Saturday, Oct. 26, before taking the long drive to Bowdoin College to compete in the NESCAC Championships.