Saturday, Nov. 12, the Keene State men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Division III New England Regional Championships. The men finished in the top third for their race and the women finished in the top half.
The women’s team finished 15th out of 59 teams and the men’s team finished 22nd out of 56 teams. The women were led by senior Lindsay Szuch who finished in 45th place, the highest of her career. Szuch nearly made it to nationals, but came up about 20 seconds short.
For the men’s team, junior Phil Parent led the way, finishing in 63rd place and being the second runner in the Little East Conference (LEC) to finish the race.
The New England Championships brought an end to the season for both teams. For the season, the women won the LEC championship for the 17th consecutive year, and Lindsay Szuch was the individual conference champion. The women’s team also had four runners that made the All-Conference Team for the Little East Conference. KSC seniors Lindsay Szuch, Katelyn Terry and Alyssa Lombardi, as well as junior Rachel Klaski made the team. After the meet, Szuch talked about her team’s performance and said, “I think we did amazing overall. We had several girls run personal bests on the course, despite have been given one of the worst spots on the starting line.”
The men’s team finished second in the LEC and had two All-Conference Team runners. KSC junior Phil Parent and sophomore Iid Sheikh-Yusuf made the team. Senior Matt Dudley talked about the team’s performance and said, “Overall, everyone did good. It wasn’t our best race, but everyone really gave it their all.”
Head Coach Tom Pickering also talked about the performance of both teams after the meet. For the women’s team he said, “Our women’s team had a very good team race on Saturday. It was a very strong region. Six of our seven runners had their best 6k race of the season.”
For the men, Coach Pickering said, “While our men’s team did not have the kind of race on Saturday that we had hoped for, they finished in about the same place relative to the two team’s they raced closely all season. I certainly do not think that there was any kind of effort let down.”
Mike Cerrotti can be contacted at Mcerrotti@kscequinox.com