WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – On a cool, cloudy day, the Suffolk cross country teams faced off against some of the nation's top competition in the annual Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams. The Rams raced through mud and over hills on the Mt. Greylock Regional High School course. 

The blue-and-gold was represented on the women's 6k and the men's 8k courses that featured the top teams in New England as well as the country and the sub-varsity 5k race. 

The standout performance came from junior Emma Weisse who barreled through the muddy 6k-course, crossing the tape in 23:35.4 to take 20th in the field of 129 runners. Her classmate and co-captain Emily Manfra came through the finisher's chute in 24:12.4 to claim 40th overall.   

Also in the field for Suffolk's women were Olivia Chilcott (29:03.0), Skyler Spanbauer (29:04.9), Natalie Fay (29:09.4), Meagan Dyer (29:09.8) and Mai Linh Vankirk (29:34.6).  

On the men's side Matyas Csiki-Fejer put together the seventh-best performance by a first-year runner in the 8k heat, taking 67th in the field of 208 thanks to a time of 27:35.0.  

Csiki-Fejer, the reigning GNAC Runner and Rookie of the Week, was the only Ram to finish inside the top 100. Roth Santos (29:09.1), Nick Malm (29:27.6), Hunter Toyoda (29:59.6), Keoni Geers (30:25.2) and Kevin Torres (30:57.6) all ran for Suffolk in the 8k as well.  

Jonah Flores (19:30.2), Arthur Lacerda (19:51.0), Ryan Holloway (22:16.9) and Nicholas Nunez (24:02.8) ran for the Rams in the 5k heat.  

Suffolk will take the next few weeks off before hosting the Suffolk Duels Friday, Oct. 12 at Franklin Park.