Submitted by Dominick Delello, Saint Michael’s College.
Saint Michael’s College women’s cross country junior Abby French (Nashua, N.H./Academy of Notre Dame) landed on the Northeast-10 Conference All-Conference second team after placing 14th and setting a personal record of 22:36.2 during Sunday’s NE10 Championship, becoming the first Purple Knight to qualify for all-conference since 2014. The Saint Michael’s men’s cross country team placed 13th out of 15 schools with 361 points in the 8K, tying 12th-place Saint Anselm College, while the women’s team took 14th out of 15 schools with 329 points in the 6K.
Junior Kevin Jeter (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) led the Purple Knight men, placing 51st with a time of 26:38.8, only four seconds off his PR. Senior Nathan Terry (Reading, Mass./Tilton School) clocked in at 28:06.8, placing 89th, while first-year Jake Donnelly (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) set a PR of 28:13.1 en route to a 95th-place finish. Senior David Baird (Higganum, Conn./Haddam-Killingworth) came in 100th place, crossing the finish line at 28.22.6, while first-years James Downs (Winchester, Mass./Winchester) and John Cunningham (Springfield, N.H./Kearsarge Regional) finished right behind him with PRs of 28:25.7 and 28:28.1, good for 101st and 102nd, respectively. First-year Matt Gianni (Stowe, Vt./Stowe) grabbed a 122nd-place finish while setting a PR with a time of 29:40.6.
Each of the top seven Purple Knight women set PRs, while their third- through seventh-place finishers all made their 6K debuts. Senior Kara Hettinger (Lindenhurst, Ill./Saint Joseph Catholic Academy) landed a 93rd-place finish, racing in at 25:36.5 to finish second behind French for the Purple Knights. Sophomore Molly Nemes (Plymouth, Mass./Sturgis Charter Public School) came in at 25:50.8, good for 98th, while first-year Rachel Smith (Old Forge, N.Y./Town of Webb) finished right behind her in 99th, clocking in at 25:54.2. First-years Eleanor Devereux (Jericho, Vt./Mount Mansfield Union) and Alexus Day (Belmont, N.H./Belmont) finished 101st and 104th, respectively, with Devereux sprinting in at 26:01.1 and Day finishing at 26:06.8. Fellow first-year Colleen Tubridy (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) came in at 26:12.2 to land in 108th place.
