DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's and women's teams combined to earn All-Little East Conference honors a total of 17 times and four individuals and two relays won titles at the 2022 LEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
 
In eight-team fields, the Eastern women placed second with 134 points and the defending champion men were third with 107. The University of Southern Maine, host Massachusetts Dartmouth and Eastern held down the top three spots in both the men's and women's competition.
 
 The UMass Dartmouth men won their first title since 2014 with 155 points, with Southern Maine next at 125. USM had won nine of the previous 13 men's championships. In what was essentially a two-time race for the title, Southern Maine won its 22^nd women's title since the inception of the championship in 1998, with 207 points. UMass Dartmouth was third with 79 points.
 
For the Eastern women, 14 different individuals contributed to the team's 112 points from individual (non-relay) events while 16 different individuals contributed to the 90 points that the men earned in individual events.
 
Event champions are accorded first-team All-LEC recognition and second-place finishers are name to the second team.
 
The Eastern men and women both captured the 3000 meter steeplechase titles as well as the 4x800 meter relay. As the No. 2 seed, defending men's champion Ryan Escoda (Newtown), a senior,  repeated as the 3000 steeplechase winner while first-year runner and top seed Alison LeClerc (Wolcott) claimed the women's title at that distance, giving the program its second champion in that event in three years.
 
The women's 800 relay was comprised of LeClerc and classmate Iris Bazinet (Pomfret), and sophomores Carly Alston (Franklin, MA) and Elisabeth Rodil (Milford, NH) that gave the Warriors a second straight title at this meet and a third in the last four years.
 
Running the men's winning 800 relay were Escoda, sophomore Thomas Stone (Glastonbury) and first-year runners Noah Linton (Tolland) and Liam Stafford (Alexandria, VA).
 
Top-seeded senior Maggie Santacroce (Bristol) was the women's third event champion, becoming the first Eastern female to win the 10,000 since 2010. For the men, LEC indoor triple jump champion and top outdoor top seed Collin Wiltshire (Ledyard), a first-year Division I transfer, gave the Warriors the outdoor triple jump champion for the second straight year. Last year, current sophomore Aidan Hennessy (Granby) became the first Eastern male to claim that title since 2002.
 
 Additional Eastern competitors earning second-team All-LEC distinction with second-place finishes were Alston, sophomore Alyssa Sirianni (Vernon) and junior Keara Fontaine (North Kingstown, RI) for the women and senior Jorich Swift (Mansfield) and first-year participant Adam Schimmelpfennig (Pomfret) for the men.
 
Alston earned the honor in the 800, Sirianni in the 400 hurdles, Fontaine in the 3000 steeplechase, Swift in the 10,000 and Schimmelpfennig in the 400 hurdles.
 
Escoda led the men by accumulating 16 points in individual events, with Aidan Hennessy collecting 13 points in three events, Wiltshire 11 and Schimmelpfennig and Swift with eight each. For the women, Santacroce collected 16 points, Alston 14, Sirianni 12, LeClerc ten, Fontaine nine and Bazinet and senior Manar Enany (Fairfield) eight each.
 
For the women, three different individuals netted points in the 800, 5000 and triple jump events while three scored for the men in the 110 hurdles.