The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the annual New England Open Championship at Franklin Park in a field that included several Division I schools and NESCAC rivals. UConns men’s team won its first title since 1969, while Boston College took home the title on the women’s side. The Cardinal men placed a respectable 30th out of 43 other teams. The Wes women also showed they could compete with top talent by placing 25th in a field of 39 other teams.

Coming in first for the men’s team on the 6k course was Skyler Cummins ’13 (26:07), placing 67th in a field of 282 runners. The next Wesleyan finisher was Austin Cotant ’13 (26:32) in 97th place, with Seth Hafferkamp ’12 (27:26), Mac Schneider ’12 (27:34) and Julian Applebaum ’13 (27:48) rounding out Wesleyan’s top five.

Co-captain Bryan Marsh ’13 felt that New Englands was a learning experience for many of the freshmen, “This was our first big meet, and I think we learned a lot as a team, and realize what we have to work on to prepare for Regionals.”

Libby Lazare ’14 paced the women’s team, coming in 106th of 269 entrants with a time of 19:36 in the 5k. The next finisher was  Hannah Zimmerman ’13 (19:55) followed by Tess Crain ’12 (20:00) and Julia Mark ’13 (20:07).

Next up for both teams is the annual Little Three meet at Williams on Saturday, Oct. 15.