WESTFIELD, Mass.- Alex Walecka (North Dartmouth, Mass.) and Mitchell Renfrew (Barkhamsted, Conn.) ran at the NCAA DIII New England Regional on Saturday and both were able to take time off of their ECAC times from the previous week. The regional consisted of over 350 runners from over 50 schools in the New England area.
Walecka completed the 2012 season as the top Endicott runner in every race. He was able to take his ECAC time of 30:14 and shave off nine seconds to come in 245th. His official time was 30:05 over the 8K course. Renfrew continued to improve as he has over the course of the season and made great strides from the ECAC meet to the NCAA regional. His time of 31:10 was an impressive 43 seconds faster than the time he registered at the ECAC Championship as he crossed in 279th place. Renfrew was able to save his best performance for last as the time of 31:10 was his best of the 2012 season.
For the women, Kim Shepherd (Essex, Conn.) capped off her career by taking the top finish for Endicott in every meet. Shepherd finished 169th out of 367 women runners in the regional meet. Her time of 24:59 was just four minutes off the winning race time. Erin Haynes continued her impressive inaugural campaign as she crossed the line just 14 slots behind Shephred. Haynes posted a time of 25:10 which was 28 seconds off of her ECAC time that she registered. Just 31 seconds behind Haynes was sophomore Jocelyn Kane (East Longmeadow, Mass.) who finished in a time of 25:41. Kane's performance was a 26 second improvement from the previous week and earned her 204th place. Holly Davis (Guilford, Conn.) was right on Kane's heels as she placed 217th at the meet. Her time of 25:53 was the biggest improvement on the team as she took off one minute and 14 seconds off of her ECAC time. Jillian Mendes' (Waterbury Center, Vt.) time of 26:17 cut 28 seconds off of her time from the previous week and earned her 239th place. Shelby Woodworth (Hutchinson, Minn.) completed the Endicott scoring by finishing with a time of 27:32, good enough for 277th in the meet. Woodworth was able to cut her last week's time by 38 seconds.
The women were able to record a team place with their finishes and ended their season with a 35th place out of 51 teams at the NCAA Regionals. Both the men and women have seen great growth and improvement throughout the course of the season and have seen their athletes develop into consistent cross country runners.
