NCAA Mideast Regional Meet Preview

Westfield State will be hosting the NCAA DIII Mideast Regional cross country meet at Stanley Park on Saturday, November 11. The men's team will be competing at 11:00 A.M., and the women's team will be competing at 12:00 P.M.

36 teams will be coming to Westfield to compete in this meet for a shot at qualifying for the NCAA DIII cross country championship.   The winner earns automatic qualification into the DIII championship which takes place on Saturday, November 18 at Big Spring High School in Newville, Pennsylvania. Other top-finishing will be competing for one of the 22 at-large bids for the championship meet.

Each team is allowed seven runners to compete in this regional run.

Men's Race

The top five teams from the latest power rankings from ustfccca.org, Williams College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Amherst College, Middlebury College, and Vassar College will all be competing this Saturday.

Williams College won the regional meet last year with a total score of 40. They had six runners finish in the top 15 places, including graduate Elias Lindgren (Merion Station, Penn.), who had the best individual time at 25:03.9, and returning runner John Lucey (Newburyport, Mass.), who finished in 12th place. After another great season for Williams, they come into this year's meet in the top ranking and look to win their third meet in a row.

Second-ranked RPI finished last year's meet in a close second place with a score of 57. Two of their top returning runners to watch this year include Cory Kennedy (Littleton Colo.) and Jason Gibbons (Northport, N.Y.), who finished in seventh and 11th places a year ago.

Fourth-ranked Middlebury finished in third place with a score of 99. Senior Alec Gironda (Chatham, N.J.), who finished eighth in last year's event, will run the regionals again on Saturday.

With the top five finishers from last year not competing in this year's regional meet, the door is wide open for runners to make their mark. This is especially true for Vassar's Miles Takiguchi (Portland, Oreg.) who finished just outside the top five spots in sixth place.

Another runner to put on your watchlist is Wesleyan University's Noah Mahoney (Monticello, Minn.). The first-year Mahoney ran this same course for last month's James Earley meet and won third-place honors.

Westfield State looks to improve on last year's 17th place finish out of 23 total teams. The top returning runners from that meet include senior John Nekitopoulos (West Springfield, Mass.), who finished first for the Owls and 87th overall with a time of 28:47.9, and junior Will Buckley (Plymouth, Mass.), who finished second for the Owls and 95th overall with a time of 29:07.9.

First-year runner Nathan Sylven (Wrentham, Mass./King Phillip), this year's MASCAC Runner and Rookie of the year, looks to make a statement in his first NCAA regional meet. All three Westfield runners mentioned made this year's MASCAC All-Conference Team.

Women's Race

The top five teams from the latest power rankings from ustfccca.org, Williams College, Amherst College, Vassar University, Middlebury College, and Coast Guard will all be competing this Saturday.

Williams College had a near-perfect meet last year, coming in first place in the women's race with a score of 47. They had four runners inside the top ten, including returning runners Genna Girard (Natick, Mass.), who finished third individually, Molly FitzGibbons (Oswego, N.Y.), who finished fourth, and Ella Ball (Stanford Calif.), who finished 10th. The Williams' women's team has won the last two meets. They look to secure a third straight win on Saturday.

Second-ranked Amherst College finished second in last year's meet with a score of 70. They will be without their top three finishers from last year on Saturday.

Tenth-ranked RPI finished in third place with a score of 122 with significant help from graduate Morgan Lee (Edgewater, MD.), who had the best time individually.

St. Lawrence University is another team to look out for, as they return two of the top 15 finishers from last year, Emma Palumbo (Rochester, N.Y.), who finished fifth last year, and Allison Sibold (Wellesley, Mass.), who finished 13th.

Wesleyan's Jordan Walter (Atlanta, Ga.) secured a second-place spot on the same course during last month's James Earley meet. She looks to carry over that success to this regional run.

Westfield State finished last year's regional meet in 12th place out of 21 teams with a total time of 2:06:45. Out of the returning runners for Westfield, sophomore Shea Hamel (Longmeadow, Mass.) finished first in 62nd place with a total time of 24:55.2.

 Junior Ariann Lecours (Haverhill, Mass.) finished second for the Owls in 74th place with a time of 25:22.3. Sophomore Julianne Kelly (Natick, Mass.) finished third for the Owls in 81st place with a time of 25:43.8. All three Westfield runners mentioned made this year's MASCAC All-Conference team.

Course Summary

The men will be racing an 8k course and the women will be running a 6k course that are both contained within Stanley Park. They will be running the same courses that were run during last month's James Earley meet. The start and finish lines are located in the grassy, flat part of the park. Later laps will take the runners through the nature trails in the Wildlife Refuge section of the park.

Forecast

The forecast for Saturday afternoon shows clear skies with a high of 46 and a low of 28. Winds expected at 13 MPH. Spectators of the meet should look to arrive early enough as traffic for the event could be heavy, and are encouraged to park in the Westfield State Commuter Parking Lot located down the street from Stanley Park.

-- written by Cam Boudreau, sports information intern