MANCHESTER, N.H. - Junior Fran Peterson (Barron, Wis./Barron) finished as Northeast 10 Conference Championship runner-up on Sunday, highlighting the Saint Michael's College men's and women's cross country teams' third-place performances at Saint Anselm College. In all, six Purple Knights earned all-conference finishes, and Peterson was also recognized with the NE10 Elite 24 Award as the top scholar-athlete in the women's field.
 
Senior Braden Butler (South Berwick, Maine/Marshwood) joined Peterson on the NE10 All-Conference first team, junior Andrew Scanio (Lake Placid, N.Y./Lake Placid) and sophomore Jersey Miller (Minneapolis, Minn./Saint Louis Park) were second team finishers, and juniors Adam Bilodeau (Lewiston, Maine/Lewiston) and Meredith Reilly (Ashland, Mass./Ashland) landed on the third team.
 
TEAM RESULTS

• The Purple and Gold men were fourth and the women stood sixth in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) East Region polls.
• The men placed third at an NE10 Championship for the first time since 1995, when eight teams ran. They competed in a nine-team field on Sunday, collecting 83 points - also their best since 1995 - to come within five points of runner-up Franklin Pierce University. Southern Connecticut State University won (23). The regional rankings placed the Owls first and the Ravens third in the latest poll.
• The women were third at the NE10 Championship for the second time in three years, netting 89 points in a 10-school field to fall only three shy of second-place Bentley University. Southern Connecticut State also won the women's meet (42). Heading into the event, the Owls were second in the regional rankings, while Bentley was seventh. Eighth-ranked Saint Anselm College was three points short of the Purple Knights on Sunday, finishing in fourth place.
• Peterson's second-place finish was the best ever by a Purple Knight woman at an NE10 Championship, since Saint Michael's joined the league in 1987. Only Kerri D'Arrigo '89 had a better performance at a league championship, winning the 1985 and 1986 Mideast Collegiate Conference meets.
• Peterson joined Merrimack College's Katherine Ferrara (2018) as the only NE10 women's cross country runners to earn all-conference and Elite 24 accolades in the same year since Elite 24 was established in 2018 to recognize student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade-point average competing at finals sites.
• Peterson is the third Purple Knight in as many years to land Elite 24, after Katie Culliton '24 and Swapnil Jhajharia '24 were both recognized in 2023.
• Peterson became the third Saint Michael's woman to earn all-conference three times, joining four-time honorees and SMC Athletic Hall of Famers D'Arrigo and Chloe Boutelle '15.
• Miller is the fifth Purple Knight woman to claim all-league finishes as both a first-year and sophomore, joining Boutelle, D'Arrigo, Peterson and Sue Chayer '89.
• Scanio, who landed all-league as a first-year, became the Purple Knight men's first two-time qualifier since Thomas Lichtenberger '07, but the first with a pair of nods by his junior year since Robert Bergeron '98 in 1996. Scanio missed a third career accolade as a sophomore by one placement.
• Three Purple and Gold men earned all-conference finishes for just the second time (1989, 1990). Sunday was the first time the men's and women's teams each had at least three all-league runners.

WOMEN'S LEADERS

• Peterson
  • 2nd of 92 finishers in 6K, 23:21.4
  • 3rd career NE10 All-Conference first team finish
• Miller
  • 8th, 24:14.5
  • 2nd career NE10 All-Conference finish
• Reilly
  • 19th, 25:34.7
  • 1st career NE10 All-Conference finish
• Junior Rylee Burnham (Hartland, Vt./Hartford)
  • 31st, 26:11.1
• Sophomore Jordan Munro (Holliston, Mass./Holliston)
  • 34th, 26:23.7
• Senior Jocelyn Sommers (Dalton, Mass./Wahconah Regional)
  • 39th, 26:36.7
• Sophomore Kendra Heath (Portland, Ore./Rex Putnam)
  • 54th, 27:24.0 (PR)
• Senior Erin Boyd (Islip, N.Y./Saint Anthony's)
  • 59th, 28:03.7
• First-year Torrey Hanna (Addison, Vt./Vergennes Union)
  • 63rd, 28:50.4
• Sophomore Norah Stubbs (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex)
  • 66th, 28:58.9
• First-year Alex Middelkoop (Schenectady, N.Y./Schalmont)
  • 70th, 30:17.2 (PR)

MEN'S LEADERS

• Butler
  • 7th of 94 finishers in 8K, 26:55.0
  • 1st career NE10 All-Conference finish
• Scanio
  • 12th, 27:10.1
  • 2nd career NE10 All-Conference finish
• Bilodeau
  • 18th, 27:34.2
  • 1st career NE10 All-Conference finish
• First-year Pierce Coughlin (Oakland, Maine/Messalonskee)
  • 23rd, 27:45.7
• Sophomore Cooper Brennan (Wilton, N.Y./South Glens Falls)
  • 25th, 27:48.3
• First-year Josh Pelletier (North Andover, Mass./North Andover)
  • 30th, 28:10.3
• Sophomore Taggart Schrader (East Montpelier, Vt./U-32)
  • 33rd, 28:14.9
• Sophomore Andrew Cole (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland)
  • 38th, 28:22.2
• First-year Landon Stevens (Lexington, Ky./STEAM Academy)
  • 56th, 28:56.5
• Senior Ken Zou (Hampton, N.H./Winnacunnet)
  • 63rd, 29:22.3
• First-year Tommy Fogarty (Peabody, Mass./Essex Tech)
  • 72nd, 29:55.5
• Junior Kyle LeVangie (Medfield, Mass./Medfield)
  • 80th, 30:37.0
• Senior Aaron Nobles (Boston, Mass./Boston Preparatory Charter Public School)
  • 87th, 32:23.9

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S MEET

• Nov. 8 at NCAA East Regional Championship in Hopkinton, N.H.
• The women run at 10 a.m. before the men begin at 11:15 a.m.