WILLIMANTIC, Conn. –  The only individual in the 50-year history of the Eastern Connecticut State University men's track & field program to achieve All-America recognition in running events as many as three times, Lee Cattanach '16 has been selected for induction into the Eastern Connecticut State University Athletics Alumni Hall of Fame, as announced by committee chair Scott Smith.
 
Cattanach becomes the fourth announced member of the five-person Class of 2025, which will hold its 31st induction ceremony and social Saturday, Oct. 18 at the campus's Fine Arts Instructional Center concert hall and lobby. The induction ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. and will be followed by a social at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are priced at $50 each. For additional information, visit https://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/2020/5/21/hall-of-fame.
 
Announced previously as 2025 Alumni Hall of Fame inductees were Priscilla (Alicea) Pierro '12 (softball), Amy (Arisco) Geriak '12 (women's swimming) and Michael Garrow '14 (men's basketball).
 
Cattanach overcame nagging injuries between 2011 and 2016 to warrant an abundance of institutional, conference, regional and national honors.
 
After missing the 2013 cross country season due to injury, the New London native and Williams School graduate
finished 20^th out of 373 runners at the New England Regional Championships the following season, qualifying for the NCAA Division III cross country championships. He then placed 78^th out of 280 elite competitors at the national championships at Mason, IA. In cross country, Cattanach was a three-time All-LEC performer and was voted as the Little East Conference Cross Country Male Runner-of-the Year in 2014 after winning the individual title.
 
Despite never competing in track during high school, Cattanach earned All-America honors three times in the 800 meters at Eastern: twice indoors with seventh-place finishes at the NCAA Championships, and once outdoors with a sixth-place finish. Cattanach followed up his LEC Male Runner-of-the-Year achievement in cross country in the fall of 2014 by being named LEC Male Track Athlete-of-the-Year that winter after winning the LEC 800 meters in a then-championship record time of 1:55.86,  which remains the second-fastest time in LEC Championship history. He followed that up a year later during the 2016 outdoor season by capturing the LEC 800 (1:54.27) and 1500 (3:59.84) meter titles.
 
"Lee was very, very focused and very driven to make it to the national meet and compete at a high level," remembers former Eastern cross country and track & field teammate Chris Armstrong. "He planned out his seasons and his years and his time to meet his goals."
 
In addition to winning LEC titles and qualifying for NCAA Championships in his final outdoor season, Cattanach won the NCAA Division III New England championship at Springfield College by a half-second in a field of twenty-four 800 meter runners in a then-program-record time of 1:51.64 and also ran to All-New England honors in the 800 at the Open Championships a week later at Southern Connecticut State by placing fourth (second among Division III runners), again establishing a program record (1:50.74.).
 
Cattanach is one of only four Eastern athletes to qualify nationally in both cross country and track & field, joining Alumni Hall of Famers Steve Gates (1989 induction), Carla (Brown) Thompson (2004), and  Tim Quinn (2007), and is the only one of the four to achieve All-America honors in track & field.
 
One of the most versatile runners in program history, Cattanach competed at every distance from 800 meters on the track to 8,000 meters in cross country and graduated with the fastest times in program history at 800, 1000, 3000 and 5000 meters. Today, he maintains the best time in program history in the 800 and 1000, second-fastest times in the mile and 3000, and third-fastest in the 5000. He still holds program indoor and outdoor 800 meter records and the indoor 1000 meters and mile records. Cattanach's indoor 800 meter record time of 1:50.86, set at the 2015 New England Open Championships, was the eighth-fastest indoor 800 meter time in Division III history. He set the current program 800 meter outdoor record of 1:50.30 during the preliminaries at the 2016 NCAA Championships, held at Wartburg College's Walston-Hoover Stadium. Cattanach concluded his collegiate track career the following week running 3:47.69 at the outdoor 1500 meters at the Battle Road Twilight Meet at Bentley University.
 
 "There wasn't anything Lee wouldn't do," recalls former Eastern track & field teammate Dylan Kruppa. "He did so much extra work, extra strength training, extra warmups… and it really showed. He knew the times that he wanted to hit and he was going to do anything that he could to qualify for the nationals. To be a runner from 10k all the way down to 800, you have to do a lot of specialty work in-between your races."
 
Cattanach's remarkable athletic accomplishments – which included his selection as departmental Individual Sport Athlete-of-the-Year in each of his final two years -- were matched only by his excellence in the classroom, where he earned a multitude of  honors. As a senior, he became the program's only CoSIDA Academic All-America honors as a third-team choice. He was also a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District qualifier, a USTFCCCA All-Academic qualifier in cross country as a junior (minimum 3.30 cumulative GPA and top 25 percent finish at the NCAA Championship meet) and qualified for the LEC All-Academic Team every season and as a departmental Outstanding Scholar-Athlete recipient in each year of eligibility.
 
Cattanach graduated from Eastern with a B.S. Degree in Accounting (magna cum laude, May 2016) and a B.S. Degree in Finance (magna cum laude, August 2016) and is currently employed as the Director of Corporate Strategy for Abercrombie & Fitch Co., and is a Certified Public Accountant. He resides in Columbus, OH.