MEET OVERVIEW:

HENNIKER, NH. - The Lesley Men and Women's Cross Country teams both participated in the NECC Championship race on Saturday morning. The Women's Team was named the 2021 NECC Champions for the first time since 2017.

INSIDE THE MEET:

• Mitchell College was named the champions on the men's side, as Evan Carney won the 8K race. Mitchell just edged out Eastern Nazarene by three points.
• Zachary Spatz was the first 8K finisher for Lesley and fifth finisher overall. Spatz finished the race in 36:04 and earned a place on the NECC All-Conference First Team. Michael Langford, Adonis Giannopolous, Leo Weingarten, and Adrian Zgrdja all finished for Lesley as well.
• Lesley was named the women's champion, beating out Mitchell 25 points to 42.
• Freshman Olivia Binette finished first for the Lynx and came in second place overall. Binette finished the 5K in 21:15, only behind leader Lara Jacobs of Mitchell. Hannah Nangle and Paulina Sandoval-Alvarez came in third and fourth behind Binette. Nangle finished at 21:46, while Sandoval-Alvarez came in at 23:05. All three freshmen earned places on the All-Conference First Team and Binette was named Rookie of the Year to complete her fantastic freshman season.
• Katherine Graham came in sixth place, just narrowly missing All-Conference honors, but still impressed with a 25:25 time. Michelle Hutter was the final runner for the Lynx and came in eleventh to complete an impressive showing by the women's team.
• To finish out the team's great day, head coach Daniel Selsky was named NECC Coach of the Year after leading his team through a difficult year and a half to end up on top of the conference.