Meet #6
EAST COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
DATE: Saturday, November 5
TIMES: Women's Race - 10 AM | Men's Race - 11 AM 
DISTANCES: Women - 5K | Men - 8K
LOCATION: Rochester, N.Y. | Matt St. James Cross Country Trails
LINKS: Live Timing

CHAMPIONSHIP TIME
The Daemen University men's and women's cross country teams take the short trek eastbound on I-90 to Rochester to run in the East Coast Conference Championships on Saturday, November 5 on the campus of Roberts Wesleyan. The Wildcats are back in action for the first time since October 15 when they ran in the biggest race of the season, the Canisius Alumni Classic, at Buffalo's Delaware Park. The women's team finished fourth out of 15 teams, and were the first non-Division I team to place in the race, while the men finished ninth out of 13 teams. On Saturday, the Wildcats women will be one of eight teams in the running for conference champions alongside Roberts Wesleyan, St. Thomas Aquinas, Molloy, D'Youville, Queens, Staten Island, and District of Columbia. The Daemen men will be racing against seven teams in the ECC Championship, as District of Columbia does not field a men's team.

SIGHTS SET
The Wildcats are on the hunt to unseat Roberts Wesleyan this weekend. Both the Redhawks men's and women's cross country teams have won seven consecutive ECC titles, the longest streak in conference history on both the men's and women's side. Daemen is in the hunt for their first ever conference championship title. No Wildcat runner has ever won ECC Runner of the Year, awarded to the top finisher in the men's and women's ECC Championship races.

HISTORIC SEASON
The Daemen women's team won a program-record four consecutive races this season, taking the top spot in the Frank Dillon Memorial Invitational, Daemen Alumni Invitational, Equality Invitational and Highlander Invitationals to open up the year. To coincide with the team's first place victories throughout the season, sophomore Marcy Colca (Getzville, N.Y.) earned a program-record herself, topping the field in each of the first four races of the season, marking the first time in Daemen program history that a runner won four races in a row in a single season. Colca finished first out out of all non-Division I runners in the Canisius Alumni Classic, and was the only Daemen runner to finish in the top 20, coming in seventh overall out of 156 runners with a time of 18:43.2 in a hugely competitive 5K field. Jon Moote (Wilson, N.Y.) also made Daemen history this season when he raced to his second straight first-place finish at the Highlander Invitational on October 18. The junior shaved over a minute off his previous PR, setting a personal-best and program record time of 25:30.1 over the 8K race. Moote's time ended Kevin Roginson's school record of 25:32.6 that was set at the 2016 Harry F. Anderson Invitational. Moote was the first Division II runner to cross the finish line at the Canisius Alumni Classic, placing 36th out of 170 runners with an 8K time of 26:22.0. After his impressive performances this season, Moote owns the No. 1, No. 5 and No. 10 spots in the Daemen record book of fastest 8K times in the Wildcats' NCAA Div. II era (2015-present). 

LOOKING BACK
At the 2021 ECC Championship, the Daemen women placed five runners in the top 14 (earning All-ECC honors) and finished second as a team, marking the fourth time since Daemen joined the conference that the Wildcats finished second overall. Kassandra Nolet (Fort Erie, Ont.) paced the Wildcats, placing third overall with a PR time of 18:18.0 that still ranks third in the Daemen 5K record books, while Colca finished seventh at 18:54.9. The Daemen men finished fourth out of six teams, with Connor O'Brien (Hamburg, N.Y.) as the Wildcats' top finisher, placing 14th overall at 27:13.2 to earn second-team All-ECC honors. 

AWARD SEASON
The Daemen women's team has been ranked second in the East Region by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for the entirety of the season. The Wildcats entered the season ranked second in the preseason regional rankings for the first time since 2017, and closed out the 2021 season ranked sixth in the final USTFCCCA regional poll. The men's team spent one week regionally ranked on Sept. 27, marking the first time that both Daemen programs were ranked regionally at the same, and the first time the Wildcat men had been ranked since the 2018 season. Throughout the season, the Wildcats have been well represented in the ECC Weekly Awards. Daemen became the first team to sweep the weekly awards on October 10, and did so again on October 17, marking the first time a team swept for two consecutive weeks since the league started Weekly Awards. Colca has been named Women's Runner of the Week five times this season, Moote has won three Men's Runner of the Week honors, freshman Patsy Oberholzer (Greece, N.Y.) has earned Women's Rookie of the Week five times this year, and freshman Aidan Kincaid (Orchard Park, N.Y.) has earned four Men's Rookie of the Week awards. 

UP NEXT
The Wildcats will head to Long Island to race in the NCAA Division II East Region Championships on Saturday, November 19th. The women will run a 6K at 12:15 PM, while the men will run a 10K at 1:30 PM.
 

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Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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