Men's Cross Country Captures 11th NEC Title
Men's cross country took home their 11th title in 14 seasons, after a dominant performance Saturday afternoon at the Northeast Conference Cross Country Championships.
The CCSU Men's Cross Country team was nearly perfect in their run at the 2023 Men's Cross Country Championships. The Blue Devils finished with 19 total points and were one place away from having the lowest score since the most dominant performance in NEC XC history in 2014 by none other than CCSU (15 points).
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2023 Northeast Conference Championship
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Team Score: 1st of 9 (19 points)
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Location: LIU – Brookeville, NY
Key Moments:
- LIUs Elyas Ayyoub led the pack with Sam Whittaker behind him for most of the race. However, it was the dark horse James Sullivan who took the NEC individual crown for the Blue Devils (25:11.90).
- The Blue Devils had five runners in the top seven that dominated the pack. Sam Whittaker came in 2nd (25:28.90), freshman Aiden Budge finished 4th (25:32.00)
- Eddie Nicholas the former NEC Champion finished in 5th (25:35.40) while Yankarlos Diaz rounded out the Blue Devils top 7 (25:35.40).
- Mark Rodriguez finished in 17th (26:31.00), followed by Calvin Young who placed 25th (27:03.90). Joe Lauria (27:40.10) and Nick Fusco (29:10.50) also ran for the Blue Devils.
NOTES
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The Blue Devils dominated the pack with four of the top five finishers. This is their most dominant run since 2014 when they had all top five finishers.
- Aiden Budge finished in 4th place with a time of 25:32:00 to earn the top rookie finisher at the championship.
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This is the program's and head coach Eric Blake's 11th NEC Championship.
- James Sullivan captured his first individual title with an impressive 5-minute mile pace. He's the program's eighth individual champion and the first since Eddie Nicholas in 2019.
UP NEXT...
The Blue Devils will have some time off before the NCAA Northeast Regionals on November 10th at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, NY.