Men's Cross Country Wins New England Championship

The Central Connecticut men's cross country team, four-time defending Northeast Conference Champions, won the New England Championship on Saturday.  Central's team score of 74 points topped Northeastern, Dartmouth, Boston University and Middlebury for the team title.

COMPLETE RESULTS

RACE VIDEO

The championship was held at Franklin Park in Boston, MA over an 8K course.  Central topped the 41-team field in impressive fashion.  It is their first New England Championship.

"I'm so proud of our team effort this afternoon," head coach Eric Blake said following the meet.  "We were solid from top to bottom, it was a great team race, led by a group of outstanding, seasoned runners.  All seven of our runners finished in the top 58, and our five scorers all in the top 28.  These guys deserve this, they work hard every day and have trained to run well today.  Now we begin our focus on defending our NEC title."

Senior Craig Hunt finished fifth overall with a time of 24:27 to pace the Blue Devils.  Junior Brian Biekert was seventh overall (24:41), followed by senior Colby Delbene (11th, 24:48), junior Patrick Hubbell (23rd, 25:06) and senior John Krell (28th, 25:08) rounded out the scoring.

Central's 74 points topped Northeastern who was second with 120.  Dartmouth scored 133 and was third, followed by Boston University with 196 points and Middlebury (214) rounded out the top five. 

Sophomore Tyler Raymond finished 35th with a time of 25:16, just out of the scoring for the Blue Devils, and senior Andrew Hill was 58th overall at 25:40.  There were 279 total runners in the race.