PURCHASE, NY - If Clive Griffiths '18 existed in "The Lord of the Rings" world of Middle-earth, he would no doubt be the One Ring. 

For those of you who don't know what the One Ring is, a quick explanation of the item is that is was created by the series' villain, Sauron, to give him the power needed to rule Middle-earth without question. In fact, the tagline of the ring and "The Lord of the Rings" series as a whole is, "One Ring to rule them all."

While I have doubts that Griffiths (Bronx, NY) is a mythical power source that fuels a dark lord's quest for domination, I have no doubts that he lives up to the tagline of "ruling them all."

It certainly applies to his performances as a member of the Purchase College men's cross country team and is the focus of today's #STATurday series.

During his time as a Panther (2014-17), Griffiths simply ruled his men's cross country teammates. Over the four seasons, Griffiths and his teammates competed in 29 races.

In 28 of them, Griffiths was the first member of the Purchase College men's cross country team to cross the finish line.

What is the one race he didn't come in first you might ask? Literally the first competition of Griffiths' collegiate career, the Purchase College Invitational, back on September 6, 2014, where he finished just 14 seconds behind a Panther teammate. 

After that day, Griffiths rattled off 28-straight top finishes among his teammates, including at events such as the Skyline Conference Championships and NCAA Regionals. The Bronx native not only paced the Panthers, but in many cases, he dominated the rest of the competition as well. 

In his career, Griffiths recorded four overall first-place finishes, including back-to-back years at the Purchase College Invitational in '16 and '17 to make up for his performance in 2014.

During his four years at Purchase, Griffiths collected All-Skyline Conference nominations each time, first earning a Second-Team spot as a freshman, before finishing on the First Team each of the final three seasons. 

Griffiths also ran in the NCAA Regionals as a sophomore, junior and senior, culminating in a 149th place finish out of 290 runners in the final race of his career.

There are certainly no questions about Griffiths and his dominance as a member of the Panthers. He will go down as one of the top student-athletes in Purchase history.

The only thing question left to ponder is whether or not Clive Griffiths will turn his attention to fully dominating Middle-ear...I mean Earth? 

Only time will tell.