Orlando, Fla. – The Sunshine State Conference announced its 2025 Cross Country Runner and Freshman of the Year awards on Thursday, as nominated and selected by the league's coaches. Embry-Riddle swept both honors for the third time since joining the SSC, with Nicholas Scarangelli earning Runner of the Year and Taye Newman taking home Freshman of the Year.
 
Newman, a California native, made an immediate impact in his debut season, breaking the Embry-Riddle 6K record (18:19) in his very first collegiate race en route to his first career win. Once the season shifted to the regularly contested 8K distance, he continued to shine, placing third at Embry-Riddle's annual Cross Country Classic and holding his own against elite competition throughout the year. At the Lucian Rosa Invitational, he finished 74th in a deep field featuring multiple nationally ranked programs, and he capped off the regular season with an 8K personal best of 24:41 to finish 12th out of 272 runners at the UAH Charger Invitational. Newman becomes the sixth Eagle in program history to earn SSC Freshman of the Year honors and will look ahead to the coming seasons with a chance to become just the fourth Eagle to win both Freshman and Runner of the Year titles in his career.
 
Scarangelli, now a junior, becomes the fourth Embry-Riddle athlete to be named SSC Runner of the Year, and the third to also have previously earned Freshman of the Year honors, which he claimed in 2023. He'll look to make program history next year as the first Eagle to earn back-to-back Runner of the Year titles.
 
Scarangelli's 2025 campaign was nothing short of impressive. He opened the year with a runner-up finish at the Swan City Classic, clocking 18:31 in the 6K, an ERAU record, if not for Newman's mark just seconds faster. From there, he led the Eagles in each of the next three meets, all contested at the standard 8K distance. He placed second at the ERAU Cross Country Classic, then finished 29th out of 219 runners at the ultra-competitive Lucian Rosa Invitational, which featured 10 nationally recognized programs. Scarangelli closed out the regular season with a sixth-place finish at the UAH Charger Invitational, running 24:31 to move up to 18th on ERAU's all-time leaderboard and help the Eagles climb to fourth in the South Regional rankings.
 
The Eagles will now turn their focus to championship season as they head to Lakeland, Fla., for the 2025 SSC Cross Country Championships this Saturday, Oct. 25, at Holloway Park, hosted by the University of Tampa.