WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's cross country team placed its five scoring runs among the top 43 percent in improving 12 spots from a year ago at the NCAA Division III New England Regional Cross Country Championships at Stanley Park Saturday morning.

As a team, the Eastern women placed 23^rd overall in a field of 59 teams, up 12 places from their 35^th-place finish a year ago at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford.

For the men, junior Cooper Goslin (South Windsor), senior captain Chris Armstrong (Bolton) and junior Noah Hallisey (East Lyme) crossed the tape within four spots of each other to pace the Warriors  to 36^th place among 56 teams over 8,000 meters.

For women, Banks excels in first regional race

Running in her first regional championship, junior Kassandrah Banks (Wethersfield) was second among Eastern runners only to senior captain Mariah McPhee (Bristol), who led her teammates at the tape for the second time in the three years that she has run the race. Junior Ariel Smith (Stratford) was third for the Warriors, junior Amanda Terenzi (Coventry, RI) and sophomore Samantha McKosky (Deep River) rounding out the team's five scoring runners.

McPhee was 120^th overall in a field of 406 with a time of 23:37 over the 6,000 meter course, Banks 133^rd (23:47), Smith 164^th (24:17), Terenzi 172^nd (24:23), and McKosky 173^rd (24:24). McPhee's place was 11 spots higher than her previous best set during her sophomore year. Like Banks, Terenzi was running the regional race for the first time. As a freshman, McKosky placed among the 25 percent a year ago as Eastern's No. 1 runner, taking 95^th place overall.

As one of the team's seven individuals to earn spots in the regional, sophomore Haley Knox (Bristol) placed 222^nd overall (25:03) in her first appearance in the race, while sophomore Christina Gosselin (Old Saybrook) rounded out the team's contingent in 276^th place (26:00), 18 spots better than a year ago.

As a team, Eastern was fourth among competing public institutions, third among the six Little East Conference's competing teams.

McPhee closed out a four-year cross country career as the women's only senior.

Goslin leads men for first time

After running second on the team as a freshman third as a sophomore, Goslin (27:55.00) edged Armstrong (27:56.19) by just over a second for the top spot this year, with Hallisey right behind (27:59). Goslin was 186^th out of 384 finishers, Armstrong 187^th and Hallisey 189^th. Armstrong improved his position by five spots over his junior year, while Hallisey jumped 56 spots from 246^th a year ago.

Also running his first regional, junior Max Armstrong (Ledyard) was Eastern's fourth runner and senior Mike Underwood (Farmington) rounded out Eastern's scoring individuals. Max Armstrong was 250^th overall (28:58) and Underwood 266^th (29:12). Underwood improved  53 spots from his only other regional appearance in 2014, when he was 319^th in a field of 373.

Completing the men's contingent were sophomore Ryan Adams (Manchester) and  senior Chris Burkle (Guilford), the latter closing out a four-year career along with Underwood and Chris Armstrong. Adams placed 322^nd (30:36) and Burkle 356^th (32:51). Adams and Burkle were first-time regional participants.