By Nick Rosa
The CCSU men’s cross country team won its second consecutive Northeast Conference title this past Saturday at home with strong performances from runners Ry Sanderson, Sam Alexander and Craig Hunt.
The men finished first overall with a score of 30 points, way ahead of the second place finishers St. Francis (P.A.), who finished with 56 points. Sacred Heart University finished third with a score of 74 and Monmouth finished fourth overall with 105 points.
Sanderson was able to outpace the field of 104 runners to earn the NEC outstanding performer award, finishing first overall with a time of 24:50.0. This time was also a course record at Stanley Quarter Park course, beating the previous mark by two seconds.
Sanderson was accompanied by Alexander and Hunt in the wave of blue and white that lead the front the entire race. Alexander finished second overall with a time of 25:08.2 and Hunt finished third with a time of 25:14.0.
“This is great for the team and having our runners take the top three spots was awesome,” said Sanderson after the race.
After red shirting last year and sitting out, Sanderson came out strong with his performance.
“I haven’t run in a championship in two years and just went out there to help the team win, it was a great victory for us,” he added.
When asked how he felt about his course record, Sanderson had no idea that he set the record.
“I had no idea until you just told me,” Sanderson said. “That’s great and all but the most important thing is that this was a team effort,” he added.
Other Blue Devils Jeremy Schmid and John Krell joined the other top three in making All-Conference honors by being in the top fourteen. Schmid finished tenth with a time of 26:01.0 and Krell finished fourteenth with a time of 26:08.8. CCSU had eight runners in the top thirty with other performances by Kevin Tiernan who was seventeenth and ran a time of 26:14.5, Anthony Gonsalves who was 21st with a time of 26:22.9 and Mohamed Hrezi who got 28th with a time of 26:46.8.
Head coach Eric Blake, who was awarded his second consecutive coach of the year, which is voted on by other league coaches, was extremely proud of his team.
“When we won last year it was a surprise, but now this year we were the favorites to win and that makes this year special,” Blake said. “I thought our guys would go one through three, and it’s pretty sweet that they actually did it,” Blake added.
The Blue Devils next stop is regionals in two weeks and both Sanderson and Blake look for a high finish at this race. Blake said he’s hoping for a top ten finish where Sanderson said he’s hoping for a top eight finish.
“Our goal is to go top eight at regionals and to show that our championship is not a joke,” Sanderson said.
The cross country team was very aggressive in the NEC and looks to continue it into the regional.
The Blue Devils are back in action on November 13, at the NCAA Regional.
