WATERFORD, Conn. -- Taking on their final tune-up of the regular season ahead of the Little East Conference Championship Meet in a couple of weeks, Eastern Connecticut State University Men's and Women's Cross Country took on the Connecticut College Invitational at Harkness Memorial State Park on Saturday, finishing ninth on the men's side led by sophomore Luke Dalton and junior Noah Hauswrith, while the women's placed 29th, led by first-year runner Sadie Iselin. 

For the women, Iselin led the pack of Eastern runners in 127th with a time of 24:33.9, passing fellow first-year runner Noelia Diaz, who placed 162nd in 24:58.6 after leading the Warrior pack earlier on. Between Iselin and Diaz was junior Keira Warner in 144th, recording a 24:45.5 in the event. Separated by almost two minutes were the rest of the Eastern runners led by junior Isabel Cintron in 246th, coming across the line in 26:34.2, about 18 seconds ahead of first-year runner Kylie Burchall, who came in at 26:52.3 in 257th, followed by first-year Hailey Yahara in 282nd with a time of 27:33.9.

The final trio of runners to cross came in the form of first-year Ava Sullivan, recording a time of 27:57.3, followed by first-year Natalie Leppert with a 29:23.0 in 300th, and in her first race of the season, sophomore Natalie Estabrook in 29:31.2, placing 301st.

As for the men, Dalton and Hauswirth took the pack out early, trading the top spots with each other with Dalton eking out Hauswirth at the end by .8 seconds, as the duo finished 26th and 27th overall in 25:53.1 and 25:53.9. Just behind them was senior Zach D'Andrea in 64th in a time of 26:30.2, while junior Joey Caruk's 27:06.8 (117th) and sophomore Hayden Baber's 27:17.0 (129th) both rounded out the team scorers for the Warriors.

Among the rest of the finishers were five first-year runners led by Gerry Hall (28:22.3) in 228th, Luke Nichols (29:13.1) in 281st, George Bourassa (29:25.4) in 293rd, Noah Chaloult (29:59.4) in 308th, and Andrew Butryman (30:14.3) in 313th, and finally senior Ian Vasquez crossed the line in 322nd with a 30:42.7 in the event. 

After a week off, Eastern will head to the Little East Conference Championships on October 31st, hosted by VTSU Castleton in Castleton, Vermont. The men will get underway at 11:00 AM, while the women's race kicks off at 12:00 PM that day.