AMHERST, N.Y. -- Daemen University women's cross country junior Lia Brasacchio (Victor, N.Y.) has been named the East Coast Conference Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week, the league announced on Tuesday. It marks the first weekly award for a Daemen women's cross country runner this season. 

Brasacchio returned to the top of the Wildcat leader boards on Saturday with a PR time of 23:19.2 over the 6K race at the Highlander Invitational to finish 11th out of 140 runners. The junior crushed her previous 6K best time (23:47.8 set at the 2025 Highlander Invitational) by nearly 30 seconds. Brasacchio was one of two Wildcat runners to place in the top 15 in the race, along with fellow junior Kylie Piekarski (Lancaster, N.Y.) who finished 14th overall. Daemen finished seventh out of 11 teams at the race. 

The Wildcats remain in Western New York this weekend to race in the Canisius Alumni Classic at Buffalo's Delaware Park on Saturday. The women's 5K will run at 12 PM, followed by the men's 8K at 12:45 PM.