COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's and women's cross country teams head to the Northeast 10 Conference Championship on Sunday, hosted by Saint Anselm College on its campus in Manchester, N.H. The 6K women's race begins at 11 a.m. before the men follow with an 8K at 12:15 p.m.
 
Both Saint Michael's squads were ranked in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) East Region polls, with the men standing fourth and the women sixth. The Purple Knight men have had a trio of runner-up finishes, took third among 37 schools in the Paul Short Run "Green" race, and placed 15th out of 28 NCAA Division I, II and III schools in a stacked New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Championship field. The women own three top-four finishes, were 19th at the Paul Short Run, and also took 15th at the NEICAAA Championship.
 
The Purple Knights are led by head coach Molly Peters, who is in her 20th year with the women and fifth with the men. A year after the women were fifth at the NE10 Championship and 10th at the NCAA East Regional Championship, junior Fran Peterson (Barron, Wis./Barron) has emerged as one of the top harriers in the region. In succession, she placed second to only a Division I runner at the 8K Sept. 21 Equality Invitational, won the Oct. 3 Paul Short Run "Green" race with the fastest non-championship 6K in program history, and registered the second-fastest 5K time in school annals as the top non-Division I finisher at the Oct. 10 NEICAAA Championship. She is a two-time all-region qualifier and landed on the NE10 All-Conference first team twice, necessitating a top-seven showing at the league meet.
 
Sophomore Jersey Miller (Minneapolis, Minn./Saint Louis Park), the reigning NE10 Rookie of the Year, owns three top-eight showings while taking one of the Purple Knights' top two scoring spots four times. She was all-region and an NE10 All-Conference first team qualifier in 2024. Senior Jocelyn Sommers (Dalton, Mass./Wahconah Regional), juniors Kayley Bell (Caribou, Maine/Caribou), Rylee Burnham (Hartland, Vt./Hartford) and Meredith Reilly (Ashland, Mass./Ashland), and sophomore Jordan Munro (Holliston, Mass./Holliston) have all scored during at least four races.
 
Senior Braden Butler (South Berwick, Maine/Marshwood) has reached his peak for the men, who were eighth at NE10s and 10th at regionals in 2024. After recording three straight top-four showings to begin the season, including winning the Equality Invitational, he set a PR while placing 14th in the Paul Short Run "Green" race before dropping 27 seconds the next week to go under 26 minutes for the first time at the NEICAAA Championship. Junior Andrew Scanio (Lake Placid, N.Y./Lake Placid), who was NE10 All-Conference as a first-year before missing all-league by one position as a sophomore, has been on Butler's heels all year as the Purple Knights' regular No. 2 runner. Sophomore Cooper Brennan (Wilton, N.Y./South Glens Falls) and first-years Pierce Coughlin (Oakland, Maine/Messalonskee) and Josh Pelletier (North Andover, Mass./North Andover) have scored at every meet to round out a deep men's team.
 
The NE10 Championship will be streamed live via FloSports. Live results will also be available. Visit SMCAthletics.com to follow along live.