JOHNSON, VT – The Lyndon State College men’s cross country team and the University of Maine-Farmington women’s cross country team each earned North Atlantic Conference Championships on Saturday in sunny but very frigid weather at Johnson State College.
The men ran first and it was the Hornets from Lyndon State in their first season of NAC competition taking the crown by accumulating the low team score 33. The runner’s up were the University of Maine at Farmington with 54 points with Maine Maritime Academy right behind them with a score of 55. Castleton State came in fourth with 79 points, Johnson State was fifth with 129, and Green Mountain rounded out the field with 169 team points.
LSC freshman Craig Johnson (North Kingstown, R.I.) was the top-finisher individually with a time of 29:03 to earn him North Atlantic Conference Runner of the Year as well as NAC Rookie of the Year. The next seven finishers earned themselves NAC First Team recognition and they were: 2nd place – Kel Cenga (Brewster, Mass.), UMF; 3rd Place – Matt Methot (Portland, Maine), MMA; 4th Place – Michael Farmer (Colchester, Vt.), LSC; 5th place – Lucas Miller (Belfast, Maine), MMA; 6th place – Jeremiah Powell (Concord, Vt.), LSC; 7th place – Cam Betts (Gray, Maine), UMF; 8th place – Ty Thurlow (Lee, Maine), UMF.
Lyndon State Head Coach Chris Ummer was named the Men’s Coach of the Year by his peers while the Hornets completed a fine day by earning the NAC Sportsmanship Award.
On the women’s side, the Farmington Beavers won their fourth NAC Championship in five years by tallying a low score of 25. Castleton were the runner’s up with a score of 58 while Lyndon State was third with 72 points, Green Mountain fourth with 96 points, Johnson State fifth with 118 points, and Maine Maritime had an incomplete team.
Lyndon State senior Lyndsey Calkins (Danville, Vt.) earned NAC Runner of the Year honors but besting the field with a time of 18:52. The individual runner-up was Castleton’s Maggie Klein (Castleton, Vt.) while third place went to UMF freshman Melani St. Pierre (Charlestown, N.H.) making her the NAC Rookie of the Year award. The rest of the NAC First Team was: 4th place – Emily Farley (Bernard, Maine), UMF; 5th place – Rachel Sincebaugh (Viera, Fla.), MMA; 6th place – Jocelyn Plog (Avon, Maine), UMF; 7th place – Emily Weston (Rumford, Maine), UMF; 8th place – Rebecca Cunningham (Eliot, Maine), UMF.
LSC’s Chris Ummer and Farmington’s Ryan Wagner were named NAC co-Coach’s of the Year while Castleton garnered the NAC Sportsmanship Award.
