Women's Cross Country Wins NEC Fall Team Sportsmanship Award
The Central Connecticut women's cross-country team was announced the winner of the Fall Team Sportsmanship Award by the Northeast Conference on Friday.
The Central Connecticut women's cross-country team was announced as a winner of one of the Fall Team Sportsmanship Awards by the Northeast Conference on Friday.
The awards were instituted by league Presidents in 2008 and are designed to acknowledge the team in each conference sport that, in the opinion of its peers, most closely demonstrates good sportsmanship based on the NEC Principles of Sportsmanship and Standards of Conduct. Voting is conducted at the conclusion of each season by each team and head coach, who rank teams within the conference based on a set of criteria.
Women's cross country earned the league's Sportsmanship Award after winning their fifth straight title at the 2022 Northeast Conference Championship. Five CCSU runners earned all-conference honors including Ashley Dana, Brooke Morabito, Kaitlyn Stevens, Maegan Desmarais, and Kaylee Gravel.
Since the NEC Team Sportsmanship program was instituted in 2008-09, Saint Francis U has won a conference-best 41 awards, followed by Sacred Heart (35), Wagner (33), CCSU (29) and LIU (26) to round out the top-five.
"It is with tremendous pride that we recognize those teams that prioritize fair play and value winning with integrity at the highest level," said NEC Commissioner Noreen Morris. "It takes everyone from our student-athletes to coaches to administrators to Presidents to create an environment of respect and support during NEC athletic competitions, to be recognized by your peers for upholding these standards is the ultimate honor."