COLCHESTER, Vt. - Saint Michael's College women's cross country first-year Tess Drury (Richmond, Vt./Mount Mansfield Union) was named Northeast-10 Conference Athlete of the Week and Rookie of the Week for the week ending on Sunday, Sept. 10, landing her second consecutive rookie accolade. Men's cross country senior Noah Taracena (Hampton, N.H./Winnacunnet) was named to the NE10 Weekly Honor Roll for the second straight week.
 
Drury won her second meet in as many college starts on Saturday, taking home the 58-runner Maple Syrup Challenge 5K in 19:16.79. The race also doubled as the Vermont Intercollegiate Championship, as Drury became the first first-year from any school to take a state crown since 2015. In the process, she bested all 18 runners from perennial Division III power Middlebury College while beating the runner-up, one of her Saint Michael's teammates, by 8.02 seconds. Drury has already tied Kerri D'Arrigo's '89 38-year-old school record for wins by a first-year.
 
Taracena, who claimed his eighth NE10 Weekly Honor Roll nod in the past three years, took third among 82 finishers on Saturday in the Maple Syrup Challenge 8K in 27:40.98. He trailed only two runners from Middlebury, which is ranked 22nd nationally in Division III. Taracena turned in his fifth career top-three showing, and second of the season after joining Drury in winning the Sept. 2 Shacklette Invitational at Saint Anselm College.
 
Both cross country squads run again on Sept. 22 when they host the Equality Invitational on campus. The men start at 12 p.m. before the women head off at 1 p.m., with each competing in 8K races. The Purple Knight women were ranked seventh in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) East Region poll, while the men stood eighth.