CASTLETON, Vt. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's cross country team had at least two things working in its favor in its quest for a first team championship in 33 years of the Little East Conference Championship meet Saturday on the campus of Castleton University.
 
And buoyed by those advantages, the Warriors came as close as possible without actually winning their first championship.
 
Working in the Warriors' favor Saturday were the factors of being the only contending LEC team to have run on the Castleton course this year -- when they placed all five of their scoring runners among the top six in easing to the team title of the four-team invitational – and their LEC Virtual Meet championship last fall when they doubled runner-up University of Southern Maine's score in racing to a 19-point team win in the five-team competition.
 
The benefit of knowing the course layout significantly benefited the effort of seniors Ryan Escoda (Newtown) and Jorich Swift (Mansfield) and sophomore Jake Haddad (Vernon) in Saturday's meet but it wasn't quite enough to prevent Southern Maine from eeking out a one-point victory en route to its fifth straight team title, and its ninth in the last 15 years of the championship.
 
Among nine competing institutions, Southern Maine had two of the top four finishers and compiled 55 points in what proved to be a two-team race. Eastern had 56 points, well ahead of Plymouth State University (85), which was third. The two teams combined to take ten of the first 19 spots. Escoda bested USM's top runner – senior Masho Gebremikael – by ten seconds for second place, but first-year runner Jordan Duplessie placed two spots ahead of Walker to give the Huskies a one-point lead, and the Huskies maintained that slim edge the rest of the way.  
 
Somewhat negating last fall's Virtual Meet championship – where the Warriors commanded the top three spots and placed all five of their runners within the first 13 -- was the fact that Eastern did not return two of those Top 5, among them senior Tyler Wright (Westport), who has missed this year's entire fall season due to injury. Moreover, two of USM's top five finishers --  its second and fifth finishers Saturday -- were first-year runners who did not compete last fall.
 
In a re-organized All-Little East Conference system, the top seven finishers were named first-team All-LEC and the next seven were honored as second-team All-LEC. Escoda (26:25) earned All-LEC honors for the second straight championship meet over the 8,000 meter course, with classmate John Walker (Westerly, RI) and Swift also earning All-LEC recognition. Walker, who did not compete at Castleton in the season-opener Sept. 3, was sixth overall (27:06) as a first-team honoree, and at 14^th, Swift squeezed into the final All-LEC spot (27:45) to garner second-team recognition.
 
Behind Escoda, Walker and Swift (who improved by nearly 30 seconds in the September meet), Haddad was 16^th overall in a time of 27:47 (an improvement of nearly a minute from September) and first-year runner Noah Linton (Tolland) – who did not run the course in September -- was 18^th (27:55). Southern Maine clinched the victory when first-year runner Matt Pooler checked in as his team's fifth runner in 19^th place, seven seconds ahead of Plymouth junior Colin Moar.
 
Rounding out the Eastern contingent were sophomore Thomas Stone (Glastonbury) and first-year competitor Liam Stafford (Alexandra, VA).
 
Escoda's previous top finish in this meet was fourth in 2019. Saturday, he cut nearly a minute off his September time on the course and was just14 seconds behind leader James Cannon of Massachusetts Boston. Track & field All-America Lee Cattanach is Eastern's only individual champion in this meet (2014) while Escoda matched the second-highest finish ever by an Eastern male (John Richards was second in 1991). Walker was 17^th overall in the meet as a first-year runner in 2018 and was 24^th in 2019. Continuing his annual performance at this meet, Swift was 39^th in 2018 and 23^rd in 2019.
 
Eastern closes out the season Nov. 13 at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regionals at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford.