About The Team 

The men and women's cross country programs continue to grow under the direction of sixth-year head coach Amy Lane. Coach Lane, whose training philosophy combines traditional runs with innovative cross-training techniques, is focused on recruiting talented runners from throughout the New England and Northeast regions.

Both teams have combined to produce eight All-Conference runners, 10 Academic All-Americans, and one Conference Runner of the Year. The women's team has been recognized as a Division III Academic All-American team in four of the last nine years. They also won consecutive Conference Championships in 2000 and 2001, and narrowly missed claiming their third consecutive championship in 2002.

Last season, the Blazers competed in the inaugural New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship and NCAA Division III New England Qualifier.

For the men's team, this past season, sophomore Nick Whitman (Florence, MA) raced to a personal-record 8,000-meter time at the WNEC Invitational, as he finished 78th with a time of 33:07. At the NECC Championship, Whitman posted a team-best 25th place showing to help the Blazers to a sixth-place finish.

Whitman, junior Ryan Sullivan (Lenox, MA), and freshmen Frank Furman IV (Easthampton, MA), Ben Kronlund (Longmeadow, MA), Mike Desmond (Nashua, NH), and Adam Tonnesen (Norwich, CT) all competed for the Blazers at the season-ending NCAA Division III New England Qualifier.

Coach Lane upgrades the cross country schedule every year to include meets against many of the best Division II and III teams in New England and New York. The Blazers conclude each season with three championships - the NECC Championship, the ECAC Division III Championship, and the NCAA Division III New England Qualifier.

The Blazers will continue to host the Blazers Invitational and the 2009 NECC Cross Country Championships at the Chicopee Memorial State Park. This site provides soft surfaced trails for optimized training, and also serves as the home practice and competition site for the two teams throughout the season.