WATERFORD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men posted their best finish in 13 years at the NCAA Division III New England Regional Cross Country Championships Saturday at Harkness Memorial State Park.
By placing four of their five scoring runners among the top 51 percent and all five among the top 55 percent in the field of 380 finishers, the men raced to a 23rd-place finish among 55 scoring teams, scoring 736 points.
Running in her first collegiate regional championship, freshman Samantha McKosky (Deep River) broke the Top 100 for the Eastern women, taking 94th place in a field of 390 finishers (top 25 percent) to help carry the Eastern women's team to 35th place among 56 scoring teams
Freshman Omar Abdelsame (Plainville) – who led the men's team on this course during the regular season – improved his time by 18 seconds in clocking a 27:04 over 8,000 meters (5:27 pace) as the Warriors' No. 2 runner, 126th overall. Running in his third meet of the season, senior Lee Cattanach (New London) was 60th overall this year (25:58) after qualifying for the national championship as a junior with a 20th-place finish at Mount Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, MA.
Behind Cattanach and Abdelsame, sophomore Cooper Goslin (South Windsor), senior co-captain Chris Armstrong (Bolton) and senior Taylor Flynn (Old Saybrook) crossed the finish line within 69 seconds to produce the program's best regional finish since it was 18th overall (in a field of only 35 teams) at Stanley Park in Westfield, MA in 2002.
Goslin was timed in 27:29 (149th) – his fastest time ever in an Eastern uniform – with Armstrong at 27:59 (192nd) and Flynn at 28:13 (209th) as the Warriors bounced back from a disappointing performance at the Little East Conference Championships two weeks ago at Keene State College. Fifth among LEC teams two weeks ago, Eastern was the third LEC finisher Saturday.
The inability of one of Eastern's top seven runners to compete moved senior co-captain Steven LaFlamme (Moosup) into the No. 7 spot for his final career race. He was 283rd overall in a time of 29:22. Sophomore Noah Hallisey (East Lyme) ran at No. 6, placing 243rd in a time of 28:47.
While the Harkness course has the reputation as a fast course due to its relatively flat terrain, its proximity to Long Island Sound had runners battling gusting winds of up to 20 mph Saturday.
McKosky was timed in 23:36 over 6,000 meters (6:20 pace), just eight seconds shy of the time that she clocked a month ago over the Harkness course at the Connecticut College Invitational. McKosky was one of the team's two freshman scoring runners, along with No. 5 runner Megan Albert (Plantsville), who was 288th overall (26:32).
Filling in the middle between the team's freshmen scoring bookends of McKosky and Albert were junior Mariah McPhee (Bristol), sophomore Ariel Smith (Stratford) and junior captain Sofia Amaral (New Milford). McPhee was 178th overall (24:48), Smith 204th (25:15) and Amaral 266th (26:13).
Competing as the No. 6 and No. 7 finishers for the women were freshman Christina Gosselin (Old Saybrook) and sophomore Evalin Brautigam (Bethel). Gosselin was 290th (26:38) and Brautigam 341st (28:30).
Chris Armstrong '17 contributed to this report
