Lions Complete Their Season, Finishing 9th at Nationals

(Holyoke, MA) On November 3rd, NCC Men's and Women's Cross Country teams traveled to Stanley Park in Holyoke, Massachusetts for the NJCAA National Championships. The men's team came in 9th out of 23 teams despite of one of their top 5 runners dropping out of the race. The Lions admirably picked up their teammate, and the remaining 6 runners ran personal bests for the 8k in adverse weather conditions. Dylan Lee came in 17th out of 162 runners 28:14, narrowly missing All-American and capping a terrific season. Dan Haddock (29:20) and Steve Cuascut (29:44) also broke 30 minutes, each finishing in the top 50. Freshman Brian Walsh (32:23), David Mascolo (35:45) and Robbie Izzo (36:31) also ran extremely well, rounding out the Lions roster. Importantly, since the Regional Championships were postponed last week due to weather, as a result of their performance at Nationals, the Lions were named Regional Runner Up behind Suffolk CC for the second straight year. Freshman Kathleen Buress continued her season-long improvement for the lady Lions and ran a 23:19 personal best for the 5k, coming in 55th place out of 107 runners. After the race, Coach Bradley Rangell commented, "I knew on the bus ride that we were going to run extremely well. You could hear a pin drop – they were all dialed in. We are extremely proud of all of our athletes –to come in second in the Region and top 10 in the nation is an incredible result."