Last season marked the ninth-straight year Central Connecticut’s men’s cross country team won the Northeast Conference. But they were not the only success story, as the women’s team finished second. This season, but teams will look to continue the success and bring home the NEC crown, and more.

When they won their ninth-straight NEC championship last year, the Blue Devils had four finishers inside the top 10. Two of those have graduated: Austin Trainor, who was the team’s top finisher, as well as Ryan Hertzog.

But the team retains Senior Alex Norstrom and junior Roberto Piotto from that group. Blake also believes Jonathan Gill, Richard Grudzwick, Julio Arredondo and Charles Taubl all have the potential to be a part of the team’s top five runners.

Blake believed one of the keys to last year’s victory will be the same for this year’s team: running in a pack.

“They really have to believe that the way to win is by running with your teammates,” Blake said.

“Sometimes the pack isn’t your one through five, sometimes it’s your three through six. Running in a pack gets the team members to relax a little bit. They’re with their teammates, they run with them every day. It gets them to be in a position that they’re having a good race.”

As for, the women, they fell just short of matching the men with an NEC, finishing second to Sacred Heart.

“They had an excellent meet last year. They had five all-conference runners, usually, that will do it,” Blake said of his team’s performance.

Of their top seven finishers, six of them return, with the exception of Brittany Mendelson, who Blake called one of the best runners in the program’s history.

Blake listed seniors Dawn Hubbell and Madeline Mondo as experienced runners that will likely lead the team, as well as Megan Brawner and Angelia Rafter.

Blake cited the accomplishments of Brawner and Rafter in the 1500-meter and 800-meter dashes, respectively, in the outdoor track season, and says the key will be for them to perform at the greater distance.

Both teams kicked off their season on Saturday at the Nassaney Invitational at Bryant, which is also the location of the NEC championships in late October.

Prior to the meet, Blake said that neither team would be running its top runners.

“We race runners that we feel that the race is going to improve their fitness for later in the season,” he said.

This showed on the women’s side in particular, as Brawner and Rafter were the only aforementioned runners to race. Rafter led the way for the team, finishing eighth overall with a time of 18:13. Brawner was less than a minute behind, finishing under the 19-minute mark.

The team also deployed sophomores Sabrina Chesters and Kailyn Accetura as well as freshmen Ashley Dana and Kiley Rodriguez.

The men showed strong, finishing second out of the 11 team field. Its roster was made up of most of their top runners.

Norstrom and Piotto led the way, finishing third and fifth overall respectively. Norstrom’s time was just two seconds over 25 minutes, and Piotto’s time came in at 25:16. Grudzwick, Taubl and Arredondo all finished within a minute of their teammates.

Both teams will now host the Ted Owen Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 22 at Stanley Quarter Park in New Britain.