The successful season for the Central Connecticut men’s and women’s cross country teams came to a close last weekend when they traveled to New York to compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, where both sides had strong showings. The event is considered one step below the NCAA meet.

On the Northeast Conference champion women’s team, sophomore Angelia Rafter continued to lead the way, finishing in 16th place out of 153 competing runners, completing the five-kilometer course in 17 minutes and 30 seconds.

Crossing the finish line just nine seconds later was sophomore Megan Brawner, taking home 24th place.

The top five for the Blue Devils was rounded about by senior Dawn Hubbell, NEC Rookie of the Year Ashley Dana and sophomore Sabrina Chesters. These three finished in the top five in every meet with the exception of the NEC Championships.

“The women’s team had another solid performance. [I’m] really impressed with our consistency,” head coach Eric Blake said of the team’s performance.

Blake added that while winning the NEC was a “highlight,” he once again pointed out the consistency in the fact that his team had “a lot of good meets too.”

On the men’s side, it was  junior Roberto Piotto, once again, crossing the finish line first for the Blue Devils, finishing the 10-kilometer course in 23:30, good enough for 20th place overall out of the 157 competing runners. Piotto has stepped into the role of the top finisher for the Blue Devils since senior Alex Norstrom was shut down due to injury with the hopes of him being fully recovered for indoor track season.

Blake was pleased with Piotto’s performance on the season but feels the best has yet to come.

“Roberto has improved a ton in his time here but I still know he can run faster,” Blake said.

Within 30 seconds of Piotto’s finish, junior Richard Grudzwick came across the finish line, placing in 38th overall.

The next highest finisher for the Blue Devils was sophomore Julio Arredondo, placed in the top 100, finishing the course in 24:46, shaving nearly four seconds off his time from the NEC meet.

Freshman Robert Moore, who made the NEC All-Rookie team, completed the course in under 26 minutes, just seconds before senior Patrick Halloran, whose score counted towards the Blue Devils’ totally.

Also notably, freshman Shaun Oushana competed in the first meet of his career, coming in 144th place overall with a time of 26:27.

Blake called it “good experience” for some of his younger runners who had not competed much on the year.

Though the cross country season is over, many of the runners are also members of the track and field team, who will begin competition on Dec. 7, when senior McKenna Killian will compete in the Pentathlon at Connecticut. The entire team will first compete Jan. 4 at Wagner.