PURCHASE, N.Y. (Oct. 26, 2025) – The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy men's cross country team continued its historic dominance on Sunday morning, capturing its seventh consecutive Skyline Conference Championship and 14th overall with a commanding team performance at the 2025 Skyline Men's Cross Country Championships hosted by Purchase College. Merchant Marine placed five runners in the top five and seven in the top 10 overall, a feat the program had not achieved in 26 years en route to a dominant first-place finish out of 11 teams with 15 points, their lowest team score since 1999, defeating Skyline Conference foe St. Joseph's Long Island by 43 points.
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The Mariners boasted a total of eight All-Skyline performers in the meet, with five on the First Team with top-five finishes and three more on the Second Team finishing eighth-11th.
Sixth-year head coach Kayla Koelbel was selected by her fellow conference coaches as the 2025 Skyline Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year.
Senior Luke Zwiesler (Colbert, Wash.) led the field wire-to-wire to repeat as the individual champion in the 8K race, crossing the finish line in 26:11.6. Zwiesler earned the Skyline Runner of the Year Award for the second straight season during the post-meet awards ceremony.
Classmate Silas Glynn (Folsom, Calif.) followed him in second place for the second consecutive season with a time of 26:47.9.
Freshman Cooper Johnson (Honolulu, Hawaii) capped an outstanding debut campaign with a third-place finish in 26:57.9, earning Skyline Rookie of the Year honors during the post-meet awards ceremony. Senior Casey Symons (Harrington Park, N.J.) finished fourth with a time of 27:04.6 and junior Pierce Murray (Meridian, Idaho) fifth in a personal-best 27:19.2, rounding out the All-Skyline First Team runners for the Blue and Gray.
The three USMMA harriers that earned Second Team honors were freshman Arjun Suresh (Plainsboro, N.J.), who crossed the tape in eighth in 27:42.9, senior Ben Anastasoff (Litchfield Park, Ariz.), who came in 10th with a time of 27:54.8, and classmate Alex Virostek (Silver Lake, Ohio), who posted a personal-best 28:03.4 for 11th place.
Up next, the Mariners travel to the Hudson Valley Sports Dome on Saturday, Nov. 8, for the ECAC DIII North Championship Meet in Milton, New York. The starting gun for the 8K race is scheduled for 11:15 a.m.
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