MXC: Saint Joseph's Back On Top After Narrow Finish In Men's Cross Country Championship

Northfield, Vt. - Saint Joseph's (Maine) climbs back to the top as they captured the 2025 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men's Cross Country Championship after the Monks collected 44 points in what was a tight race at Norwich University. SJC was narrowly trailed by the hosted Cadets as Norwich finished as this year's runner-up with 46 points. Emmanuel collected a third-place finish with 63 points while Lasell came in fourth with 108 points. Regis came in fifth with 144 while Dean (153) and Colby-Sawyer (159) finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Elms, New England College, and Mitchell all had runners compete on the course as well. 

The top-14 finishers of the meet were named to the GNAC All-Conference teams with the top seven earning First-Team honors and 8-14 earning Second-Team honors. The top finisher of the meet was named the Runner of the Year while the top-finishing rookie was named the Rookie of the Year. This year's Runner of the Year went to Norwich's Seth Varin, who ran a 26:44.9 in the 8k event. Meanwhile, Lasell freshman Caleb Ruch was not far behind him, finishing five seconds after him in second place with a 26:49.8 and earning Rookie of the Year honors. Michael Burleson of Saint Joseph's (Maine) was voted Coach of the Year by his peers and Norwich University was voted as the institutional sportsmanship recipient. The full list of all-conference honorees are below. 

First Team (In order of finish at the race)

1. Seth Varin, Norwich (Runner of the Year)

2. Caleb Ruch, Lasell (Rookie of the Year)

3. Jacob Pelletier, SJC

4. Alexey Seredin, SJC

5. Evan Vitagliano, Colby-Sawyer

6. Isaac Keresey, SJC

7. Shea Parish, Norwich

Second Team (In order of finish at the race)

8. Landon Pandolph, Norwich

9. Luke Bullock, Emmanuel

10. Ryan Bausch, Emmanuel

11. Nick Ware, Emmanuel

12. Michael Clarke, SJC

13. Joseph Mazzarelli, Emmanuel

14. Logan Whitmarsh, Norwich

Coach of the Year: Michael Burleson, SJC

Institutional Sportsmanship: Norwich University