WESTFIELD, Mass. – Eastern Connecticut State University's Lee Cattanach (New London) has been enjoying a strong season for the men's cross country team in 2012.
Saturday, this year's hard work was evident when the sophomore ran to a fifth-place finish in a field of 62 competitors involving six schools at the Little East Conference Championships over 8,000 meters at Stanley Park, in the process becoming the program's first all-conference performer since Todd Lohrman placed third as a senior in 1995 in a four-team competitive field.
In addition to all-conference honors, Cattanach also recorded the highest finish ever by an Eastern male runner and third-highest finish by an Eastern male or female when he placed seventh among 156 competitors in a 13-team field in New England Alliance scoring.
The first seven LEC runners across the line are accorded All-LEC accolades and the top 20 in the alliance scoring are recognized as All-New England Alliance.
For the Eastern women, senior Cora Gingras (East Hampton) and junior Katie France (Portland) ran as a pair, crossing the line four seconds apart (19:57-20:01) in 19th and 23rd place, respectively, in conference scoring, as the Warriors placed fourth among five teams in the conference over 8,000 meters. Eastern took seventh place in the alliance for the fourth straight year.
France was Eastern's third runner a year ago at this meet and Gingras its second. Freshman Kylie McCartney (Manchester) was third for Eastern in a time of 20:25, posting an overall finish of 26th. Eastern's other scorers were junior Alexa Palasky (Griswold), who was 37th overall in the LEC race in a time of 21:13, and junior Kelly Labanara (Chaplin) , 47th overall in a time of 22:10.
The only Eastern runners to finish higher than Cattanach's seventh-place performance in the 16-year history of the alliance meet were female runners Karina Johnson, who was fourth as a freshman in 2007, and Monica Gallagher, fifth as a junior in 1997.
Cattanach, who was 33rd in the conference and 57th in the alliance as a freshman last year at Massachusetts Dartmouth, was clocked in 26:21Saturday. He was 11 seconds shy of third place in the LEC competition in a race won by Rhode Island College senior Conor McCloskey (25:37).
Based on last year's outcome Cattanach said that he would have been happy with a Top 20 finish this year, but re-assessed his prospects as this season progressed. "After running down into the low and mid (26:00s), I realized that most of the other top runners in the conference weren't running times that were beyond what I was capable of and I decided that all-conference was a completely reasonable goal," noted the second-year runner. "I was happy to put Eastern back on the podium -- I think it disrupted the status quo of the conference. Hopefully, this will bring some attention to our program.
Cattanach indicated that he trained as hard as he ever had this past summer, and that his success this fall makes him optimistic as the indoor and outdoor track seasons loom. "This race showed me I can compete with anybody in the conference come track season, and that I also have an enormous amount of space to improve."
In LEC scoring behind Cattanach were sophomores David Klein (New Milford), the Warriors' No. 1 finisher in this race as a freshman last year, and Austin Baldour (Newtown), first-year junior Evan Glaude (East Hampton), and sophomore Kyle Shaw (Lebanon).
Klein and Baldour were just 15 seconds apart. Klein (28:39) was 40th overall, Baldour (28:54) 42nd, Glaude (29:48) 48th, and Shaw (30:15) 51st.
The Keene State College men and women swept the LEC and alliance championships. The Keene women edged the University of Southern Maine for their 13th straight LEC and alliance titles and the Keene men dominated it taking the LEC championship over runner-up and defending champ Southern Maine and the alliance crown over Bridgewater State. The Keene men grabbed six of the top nine spots in the LEC competition and the Keene women five of the top ten in conference scoring.
The Little East Conference field includes six institutions and the New England Alliance field includes six LEC schools and seven institutions from the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC).
The Eastern men and women race in the NCAA Division III national qualifier Nov. 10 at Stanley Park.
