GORHAM, Maine- The men's and women's cross country teams saw their seasons come to an end at the NCAA DIII New England Regional at the University of Southern Maine on Saturday. The NCAA Regional concludes the most successful season in recent Endicott history as the program's received multiple honors including a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Rookie of the Year award and three All-CCC honors.
The women's team finished 33rd out of 53 teams at the Regional, an improvement of two spots over last year's 35th place finish. They were led by junior Erin Haynes (Oakham, Mass.) who finished in 67th place out of 371 individual runners in the race. Her time of 22:53.0 was a one minute and 24 second improvement on her time at the CCC Championships just two weeks ago, and marks yet another career best. Her 67th place finish is also and improvement from last year's showing of 182nd at the Regional and highlighted a theme for every Endicott runner that ran as each took at least one minute off their time from the CCC's.
Lauren Boyle finished second for Endicott and 150th overall. Boyle crossed in a time of 24:23.53, and improvement of 1:09 from her CCC time of 25:32.0. Junior Jocelyn Kane (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and sophomore Holly Rigoli (Waltham, Mass.) finished third and fourth for the Gulls respectively in times of 25:53.40 and 26:02.22, which put them in 237th and 246th. Kane's time was the team's biggest individual improvement as she took over three minutes off of her CCC time of 28:57.0. Rigoli's time was the second largest improvement as she cut her CCC time by 2:05. Jillian Mendes(Waterbury Center, Vt.) improved her CCC time of 27:29.0 to 26:29.42 to close out the top five for the Gulls.
Head Coach Nick Radkewich, who has directed both programs to their most successful seasons in recent history, stated, "Last Year Erin was 182nd and ran 25:10. 32 Seniors were in front of her this year so that means she'll be in a great position for qualifying in 2014 and she's already talking about preparation to accomplish that goal. Lauren Boyle had another great performance, Jocelyn Kane overcame an injury to finish the season with a positive result and Holly Rigoli is a rookie sophomore who has been a consistent scorer in the top 5 and improved in almost every race this season. The women's team moved up from 35th of 35/51 last year to 33/53 this year."
For the men, 2013 CCC Rookie of the Year Noah Mondello (Gloucester, Mass.) again led the way as he 103rd out of 366 runners. His time of 26:47.72 was good for an average mile of 5:23 over the 8k course. "Noah ran very well, 20th for Freshmen, which bodes well for the future. We knew his focus race was CCC's this year which is what we wanted; to start producing strong showings in conference play. Really that was the case for the entire men's team," said Radkewich. Junior Alex Walecka (North Dartmouth, Mass.), who completed his personal best season, finished in 29:18.20, good for 251st. Close on his heels was Mitchell Renfrew (Barkhamsted, Conn.), who put forth one of his strongest showings of the season with a placing of 285 in a time of 29:59.20. James Dooley (Waltham, Mass.) rounded out the scoring for Endicott as he closed in a time of 33:02.42, in his first season of cross country at Endicott.
When asked to briefly reflect on his first season as head coach, Radkewich immediately deflected all praise to the indivudal athletes. "To have Erin and Noah be that successful this season is really more about their preparation going into the season. They both came prepared to focus on race preparation and the intensity training which ultimately led to their success. And it wasn't just those two, the team really responded well to the training and we saw great improvements in time and team results throughout the season. I was very fortunate to work with a team that wanted to be successful and bought into my training philosophy. I just enjoy their success as someone lucky enough to work with them on a daily basis," he stated.
Radkewich went on to say, "I'm very proud of the way our staff and student-athletes went to work the first day of preseason and followed through until this last weekend of the season. It didn't take long for me to realize this group of student-athletes want to be champions. As a program, including the men's and women's teams, they encouraged each other, supported each other and pushed each other to greater performances. In the same way they are eager to participate in the recruiting process to build the program. With only two seniors graduating, we plan to make 2014 the "most successful season" in Endicott XC history."
