KEENE, N.H. -- Coming off a rest week from competition, Eastern Connecticut State University Men's and Women's Cross Country were back in action on Saturday at the Keene State Invitational as first-year Noelia Diaz set her new personal best in the 6K event for the women, who finished 20th out of 27 teams, while sophomore Luke Dalton set his in the 8K for the men in a 6th-place finish for the men out of the 27 teams competing. 

In the women's race, it was Diaz leading the way in 66th place for the Warriors as her 24:08.4 finish was a new personal best for the first-year, surpassing her 25:29.9 mark that she set earlier this year at the Cardinal Invitational. Around 40 seconds behind her was fellow first-year runner Sadie Iselin in 108th place, finishing in a time of 24:46.1, while juniors Keira Warner and Isabel Cintron finished about 35 seconds apart respectively in 123rd (25:05.4) and 147th (25:39.7). Among the remaining four finishers for the Warriors, three of the first-year runners in Kylie Burchell (177th), Hailey Yahara (202nd), and Natalie Leppert (223rd) all came within 20 seconds of setting their personal bests on the year as well. First-year runner Ava Sullivan, who finished 207th, earned herself a personal best as a Warrior with a 27:33.0 finish, as it was her first 6K event of the season. Three Little East Conference teams in Keene State College, Plymouth State University, and the University of Southern Maine finished ahead of Eastern in the overall team standings of the meet.

As for the men, they saw four runners earn personal bests with junior Noah Hauswirth, Dalton, sophomore Hayden Baber, and first-year Andrew Butryman. Both senior Ian Vasquez and junior Joey Caruk had season-best performances in the invitational that netted Eastern a sixth-place team finish, in which only Keene State (fifth) finished ahead of them in the team results among conference foes. Leading the way for the Warriors was Hauswirth, placing 25th overall in a time of 25:53.2, as it was the second time this season in which the junior finished in the top 25. Following him was Dalton in 34th, setting his personal best in 26:07.1, while first-year Brayden Dunn nearly broke his own personal best, falling three seconds short of the mark in 41st place with a time of 26:20.8 in the 8K event.

Among the other personal bests for the day was Baber in 82nd place with a 27:12.9, as well as Butryman in 219th in a time of 29:47.6, while Caruk set a season best with a 27:54.0 in 122nd place, along with Vasquez in 235th at 30:27.4. Mixed in between those bests of the season were senior Zach D'Andrea, who was 62nd overall in 26:40.9 and sophomore Kyle Kornacki in 73rd with a time of 26:52.6, as Hauswirth, Dalton, Dunn, D'Andrea, and Kornacki were the five scores taken for the Warriors. Other notable finishes came in the form of first-year Gerry Hall in 28:33.5 for a 159th-place finish, first-year Noah Chaloult in 237th in a time of 30:29.2, and making his debut with the cross country team coming off injury, first-year Luke Nichols, who placed 225th in a time of 30:03.4 in his first-ever long-distance event. 

After another week off, Eastern will head to Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, Connecticut, for the Connecticut College Invitational on October 17th.