NEW LONDON, Conn. — 

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy men's and women's cross country teams are set to race at the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championships on Saturday, November 1st. This year's championship meet are set to take place at Highland Park in Attleboro, Massachusetts, with Wheaton College acting as host and organizer.

The men's team landed in fourth on the NEWMAC pre-championship poll, while the women's team was second with a first-place vote. Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the top choice in both rankings, a result of little surprise considering the Engineers men's program has won all 26 championship races, while the women have won 17 straight. Finishing ahead of the men on their side of the poll were Worcester Polytechnic Institute in second and Babson College in third.

"This should be a fun meet for our men and women," says head coach Greg Ahnrud. "They've been training incredibly hard for the last 11 weeks, and now they finally get to taper it down and put everything into championship racing."

The top 14 finishers in the men's race earn All-Conference distinction, with the fastest individual runner being named Runner of the Year and the highest-finishing freshman named Rookie of the Year. The major awards selection process is the same for the women's side, but the All-Conference slots are expanded to 19 to accommodate for the larger field.

Bears men's cross country had no runners finish inside the top 14 in last season's race, but there's a chance for representation this year through the one-two punch of senior captain Paul Hobbs (Vacaville, Calif.) and local legend Brendan Fant (Old Lyme, Conn.). Hobbs just missed out on All-Conference last season, placing 19th with a time of 26:03, but the senior has consistently finished on the lower end of 25 minutes all season, including a sub-25 at Wesleyan University's Cardinal Invitational on September 20th. Fant was 34th overall at 26:41 last season but has shown immense improvement this year by shaving over a minute off of his championship time, culminating in a 25:05 personal best in his most recent outing at the Conn College Invitational on October 18th.

The women's side is led by senior captains Claire Semerod (Centennial, Colo.) and Lauren Mellon (Falls Church, Va.), both of whom earned two of the Bears' three All-Conference finishes just a season ago. Mellon placed 17th overall with a time of 22:49, while Semerod placed fifth at 21:56 and later earned All-American status with a 40th-place finish at Nationals. Both are looking to bring the women's team back to the National Championship race for the third straight year, with the Coloradoan entering the weekend as a Runner of the Year hopeful to continue a dynamic season where she was run faster in each race. Her most recent time of 21:09 at the Conn College Invitational, good for 12th in that meet, is over 30 seconds faster than that of last season's conference champion.

Mellon has worked her way back from an injury sustained this past summer, now hovering around 22-and-a-half minutes with a season best 22:20 at the Paul Short Run on October 3rd. Another name to watch for the Bears will be Brooke Hunter (Phillipsburg, N.J.), who was impressive in her freshman season just a year ago, placing 27th at the championship meet with a 23:15. She has kicked it up a notch in her second-year campaign, finishing as a consistent #2 behind Semerod when healthy, including a personal record 22:18 at the Pail Short Run.

Forecasts for Saturday in Attleboro show cool, but not cold, running conditions in sunny mid-to-low fifties weather, although winds in the mid-tens could make the air feel a little cooler. "There aren't many massive features on the Highland Park course, but between the many turns and constant smaller upwards and downwards slopes, it's a course that will reward athletes who can stay mentally engaged and focused throughout the race," says Ahnrud.

Both sides will need to have the meets of their lives to upset the powerhouse MIT teams, who enter Saturday ranked 11th on the men's side of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's (USTFCCCA) national poll and second on the women's side. "This conference continues to get stronger and stronger each year, and to have multiple men and women on our squads in contention for All-NEWMAC honors means they've done an impressive job of growing and developing as both runners and overall athletes," says Ahnrud.