WASHINGTON – The SUNY Cobleskill women’s cross country team won its sixth straight North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Championship, which was hosted by Gallaudet University at Kenilworth Park Saturday.  The Fighting Tigers won with a team score of 46 points after having two of the top three runners and five finishers in the top 20 of the 88-runner field.   

Cazenovia College came in second place with a team score of 75, while Penn State Abington came in third with 81 points.  Rounding out the top-five team finishes were Keuka College (92) and Morrisville State College (119).  The rest of the 14-team field finished as follows: Wells College (6^th, 132 points); Penn State Berks (7^th, 181 points); Lancaster Bible College (8^th, 213 points); Gallaudet University (9^th, 219 points); Penn College (10^th, 281); and SUNYIT (11^th, 319).  Bryn Athyn College, College of Saint Elizabeth and Wilson College did not have enough runners to qualify for a team finish.

Individually, Cazenovia College sophomore Shelby McIntyre (Ilion, N.Y.) claimed NEAC Runner of the Year honors after taking first place with a time of 22:28 on the six-kilometer course, which also landed her on the NEAC All-Conference First Team.  The win capped off an excellent year for McIntyre, as she also set a new school-record 5K time while being the first-ever Wildcat runner to finish a race in under 19 minutes earlier this season en route to winning a pair of NEAC Runner of the Week awards.

SUNY Cobleskill took home the next two individual honors, as freshman AnnaClaire Piersiak (Staten Island, N.Y.) was crowned the NEAC Rookie of the Year while Mitch Tomaszkiewicz was named NEAC Coach of the Year.  Piersiak earned the honor after being the first rookie runner to cross the finish line with a time of 22:42, directly behind sophomore teammate and last year’s Rookie of the Year Taylor Tommell (Guilderland, N.Y.).  Her performance helped her place third overall and land on the NEAC All-Conference First Team.

Tomaszkiewicz earned his coaching honor for a fourth time in his career following a vote by the conference coaches after leading his squad to another stellar season.  In addition to the team’s sixth straight title, he led the Fighting Tigers to five top-five team finishes on the season, including a top overall finish.

Below are the NEAC All-Conference First Team, Second Team and Third Team selections, which were determined based on finish times at the championship race with the top seven finishers making up the first team, followed by the 8th-14th finishers on the second team and the 15th-21st finishers on the third team.

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The North Eastern Athletic Conference has fourteen NCAA Division III member institutions which include: Bryn Athyn College, Cazenovia College, College of St. Elizabeth, Gallaudet University, Keuka College, Lancaster Bible College, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Pennsylvania State University - Abington, Pennsylvania State University - Berks, SUNY Cobleskill, SUNY Institute of Technology, SUNY Morrisville State College, Wells College, and Wilson College.  Associate members are: Cedar Crest College (W Swimming), D’Youville College (M Volleyball), Hilbert College (M Lacrosse & M Volleyball), Medaille College (M&W Lacrosse & M Volleyball), Penn State Altoona (M Volleyball) and Rutgers University - Camden (M Golf).  The North Eastern Athletic Conference has partnered with the North Atlantic Conference in the sports of men’s and women’s tennis.