The College of Staten Island Cross-Country program will look to follow up a record-setting 2024 when they open the 2025 campaign on Saturday at the LIU Fall Festival. This weekend's meet will mark the beginning of a five-meet schedule for the program that carries them through the end of October at the ECC Cross-Country Championship. There is also the potential for a trip to NCAA Regionals following the conference championship should any Dolphins qualify. Coming off a record setting season last year, the 2025 Dolphins return many of the runners from last year's squad. However, they did graduate seniors Wayne Stephenson, Alexandrea Jackson, and more last year. The program enters the upcoming season looking to ignite a rise up the ECC ranks and will seek to continue re-writing the record books. Below, you can find a meet-by-meet breakdown of the 2025 schedule along with a closer look at the current program record-holders. Finally, our preview season concludes with a look back at our most recent conversation with Head Coach Akil St. Louis during our season 4 finale of The Dolphin Pod.
2025 SCHEDULE BREAKDOWN
SEPTEMBER 6, 2025 - LIU FALL FESTIVAL
Tomorrow, the Dolphins compete in the LIU Fall Festival for the first time. It marks the first of five meets on the schedule for the program and will mark the second consecutive year that the Dolphins begin their season on September 6th. For several CSI newcomers, the meet will mark their debut with the program.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2025 - GOLDEN EAGLES INVITATIONAL
The Dolphins will continue their season with a familiar meet as they take part in the Golden Eagles Invitational. They have competed in the meet four times before, but their last scheduled appearance in the meet was wiped out by rain in 2023. The last time that the Dolphins competed in the meet was in 2022 when only the men registered scoring as a team. In that outing, a squad that included two current Dolphins, Pedro Astudillo and Matthew Amato, placed eighth. The most recent appearance in the meet for the women saw them place 12th out of 19 teams.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2025 - FRED PAVLICH INVITATIONAL
The Dolphins have participated in the Fred Pavlich Invitational every season since 2018 with a great deal of success. In their final appearance in the meet as a Division III program, the men finished 11th in the field of 18. The following season, they finished 14th in the field of 20. The Dolphins moved near the top of the standings in the 8K in 2021 as they finished 2nd. In 2022, they finished 8th in the field of 11 teams, and in 2023 they finished 13th in a field of 15. The women have also competed in this event every season since 2018. First, they took 12th in a field of 14 back in 2018. Next was an 18th place finish in a field of 20 the following year. The women competed as individuals during each of their next three outings before placing fifth at last year's meet. In that same meet last season, the men placed seventh highlighted by a fifth overall finish for Wayne Stephenson in the 8K.
OCTOBER 11, 2025 - NJIT XC INVITATIONAL
The CSI men have competed in the Highlander Invitational every year since 2018 while the women have participated every year since 2017. However, it was last year's meet that produced one of the defining performances in the history of the program as Wayne Stephenson set a new program record in the 8K. This helped lead the men to a 19th place finish while the women placed 21st.
OCTOBER 25, 2025 - ECC CHAMPIONSHIP
The Dolphins first participated in the ECC Championship to conclude their first year as a Division II program during the 2019 season. The Dolphins placed sixth in their ECC Championship debut that year, and the meet was wiped out amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The Dolphins have since participated in the meet each of the last four seasons. In their most recent appearance last year, both the men and women placed seventh.