Men: 5^th place in 14-team field
Women" 3^rd place in 12-team field

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -  Seniors Samantha McKosky (Deep River), Haley Knox (Bristol) and Christina Gosselin (Old Saybrook) placed in the top 20 in a 122-person field over 6,000 meters to pace the Eastern Connecticut State University women's cross country team to a third-place finish in a field of 12 at the Western New England University Invitational Saturday.

Once again led by freshmen Ryan Escoda (Newtown) and John Walker (Westerly, RI) – who finished 10^th and 14^th, respectively in a field of 134 runners over 8,000 meters – the men raced to fifth place in a field of 14 teams.

For the women, McKosky was sixth (23:00), Knox 16^th (24:14) and Gosselin 18^th (24:19), with sophomore Sylvia Lawrence (Woodstock) and junior Rachel Osak (Portland) rounding out the scoring unit. Lawrence was 23^rd overall (24:26) – only seven seconds behind Gosselin – and Osak 26^th (24:33).

Escoda (26:46) and Walker (27:34) have finished 1-2 for Eastern in all five competitions this year, including going 1-2 overall at the CCRI Tri-State Invitational in the previous meet Sept. 29. Behind that pair Saturday were sophomores Brian Balkus (Ashford) and Maxwell Chace (Brooklyn), with first-year sophomore Cameron Gonzales (Plainfield) rounding out the top five. Balkus was 21^st overall (28:16) with 20 scoring points, Chace 23^rd (28:29) with 22 scoring points, and Gonzales 40^th (29:12) with 38 scoring points.

Eastern competes at the Little East Conference Championships Oct. 27 at Bryant University.