By Emily McCarthy, News Correspondent
The Northeastern men’s cross country team kicked off postseason action in dominating fashion Saturday at Franklin Park in Dorchester. With a second place finish in the New England Championships, Northeastern earned the team’s best finish since the mid-1980s. The women’s team also had a strong race, finishing 21st overall.
“I believe the reason we had such a great showing at the meet this weekend was that we raced with a team-oriented goal of placing high,” sophomore Zach Krause said in an email to The News.
Sophomore Wesley Gallagher led the way for the Huskies and finished third overall out of the field of 279 runners. He finished the 8-kilometer course in 24:17.
Junior Stephen Sollowin finished second for Northeastern and sixth overall with a time of 24:32. Junior Zachary Fraielli crossed the finish line ninth overall in 24:46 and Krause finished right behind him at 24:48, good for 10th place overall.
“Being able to run with Zach Fraielli during the race helped me relax, and knowing Wes and Steve were ahead gave me confidence to keep moving up and challenge other runners for a top 10 finish,” Krause said. “Putting four in the top 10 is a huge achievement and just goes to show how fit we all are.”
Junior Charles Conway finished 92nd overall and rounded out the scoring for the Huskies with a time of 25:57.
“I think hard work and great coaching were instrumental for our great finish,” Sollowin said in an email to The News. “We had a coaching change at the beginning of the season, but the transition was smooth and we have all been running faster than we ever had before. We knew going in we had the chance to finish in the top three as a team so we were training leading up to this with the goal in mind to pass as many runners as possible throughout the race.”
The women’s side was led by freshman Lucy Young, who finished 16th overall out of the field of 299 runners. She finished the 5K course in a personal best time of 17:58.
Sophomore Jocelyn Hubbard finished 60th overall in a time of 18:43 and senior Danielle Klein clocked in at 19:07 and finished 98th overall.
The Huskies will race again on Nov. 2 when they head to Towson, Md. and compete in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championships.
“Going into the CAA Championships I have a personal goal of placing top five and receiving the honors of first team all-conference,” Krause said. “As a team we want to go down to Towson and perform the best we can and challenge for the team victory.”
