HOPKINTON, N.H. – The Daemen University men's cross country team finished with a program-best fourth place finish out of 19 teams at the 2023 East Region Championships on Saturday afternoon. The East Region of the NCAA Division II is comprised of teams affiliated with the East Coast Conference, the Northeast-10 Conference and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. Franklin Pierce University served as the regional host.
Southern Connecticut State, the region's top team coming into the East Regional, posted a first place team score of 32 after placing their top five runners in the top 11 today. Roberts Wesleyan, which just won their ninth straight ECC Championship two weeks ago, placed their top three runners in the top six and posted a team score of 60. Host Franklin Pierce finished with 86 points as the final team to clinch an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II National Championship.
Franklin Pierce runner Wondu Summa paced the field of 136 to win the East Regional for the second straight season with a time of 30:44.13. AIC's Sadadine Adam, who placed 10
th overall, Bentley's Sam Capobianco (12
th) and Southern New Hampshire's Carter Sylvester (13
th) earned automatic bids to Nationals as the first three runners not on one of the top three teams to finish in the race.
Daemen finished with a program-best team score of 175 to place fourth and placed two runners in the top-25.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Two Wildcats earned All-Region honors from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) after finishing in the top-25 today.
- Senior Jon Moote (Wilson, N.Y.) posted a personal-best 20th place finish with a PR 10K time of 32:05.49, shaving almost two minutes off his previous PR (33:55.7) set at the 2022 East Region Championships. His time ranks second fastest in the Daemen 10K record books since the program gained full NCAA Division II status in 2015. Moote earned All-Region honors for the first time in his career with his top-25 finish.
- Freshman CJ Johnson (Baltimore, Md.) raced in his first career 10K and placed 23rd overall with a time of 32:16.23. Johnson, who was named the Daemen Athletics October Athlete of the Month earlier this week, earned All-Region honors for the first time in his career.
- Senior Connor O'Brien (Hamburg, N.Y.) placed 28th overall with a PR time of 32:31.85. O'Brien shaved a minute and a half off his previous 10K PR of 34:19.2 set at the 2022 East Region Championships.
- Sophomore Aidan Kincaid (Orchard Park, N.Y.) finished 57th overall with a PR time of 33:31.6, 45 seconds faster than his previous best (34:24.6 at the 2022 East Region Championships) 10K time.
- Freshman Ethan Keating (Wooster, Ohio) rounded out the Daemen scoring with a 60th-place finish at 33:42.79 in his first career 10K.
- Seniors Phil Ceccarelli (Hamburg, N.Y.) and Steven Blatto (Lancaster, N.Y.) placed 66th and 81st, respectively. Ceccarelli posted a PR time of 33:54.29, and Blatto posted a PR time of 34:16.27. Ceccarelli's PR was over a minute and a half faster than his previous best 10K (35:41.3 at the 2022 East Region Championships) and Blatto's PR was 30 seconds faster than his previous PR of 34:45.2 set at the 2022 East Region Championships.
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.
Follow the Daemen women's cross country program on Twitter and Instagram at @DaemenXCTF.
