AMHERST, Mass. – The Wesleyan men's cross country team hits the road on Saturday morning, October 28, for the 2023 NESCAC Championship meet, hosted by Amherst College at the UMass Amherst Cross Country Course. The 8k race will begin at 11:00 AM.
 
The Cardinals look to improve upon their 11^th place finish in 2023. Owen Rogers '24 ran a career-best time in the 8k at last year's NESCAC title meet, running in 25:14.3, placing a team-best 29^th out of 152 runners. Other returners who showed well last year include Nate Fogarty '25 and Liam Calhoun '26 as both finished third and fourth on the team, respectively.
 
Wesleyan has enjoyed a great deal of success this season in the lead-up to the NESCAC Championship. The Cardinals won their season-opening home invitational on September 9 before taking third place out of 17 teams at the Dickinson Invitational and winning Westfield's James Earley Invitational on October 7. The team has taken the past three weeks to prepare and compete at NESCAC's.
 
CARDINALS TO WATCH

• Alex Kermath '26 has burst onto the scene this season, starting the year with a first place finish at the Cardinal Invitational, running a 19:24.3 in the 6k. He has since finished 18^th overall (2^nd on the team) at the Little Three Championship (running a career-best 26:08 in the 8k),  21^st at the Dickinson Invitational (3^rd on the team), and 15^th overall at the James Earley (4^th on the team).
• A key addition to this year's team has been Noah Mahoney '27, as the first-year has made an immediate impact in his first collegiate season. Placing third overall at the Cardinal Invitational, he has placed first on the team in all three meets since, including an eighth place finish at the Little Three Championship, 14^th place at the Dickinson Invitational, and third place at the James Earley. His season-best time in the 8k was 25:38.2 at the Little Three meet in Middletown.
• Rogers will be leaned on for his experience on Saturday, having finished 32^nd (2021) and 29^th (2022) at the last two NESCAC Championships. He started the season finishing runner-up at the Cardinal Invitational and placed 20^th (3^rd on the team) at the Little Three meet and 25^th overall at the Dickinson Invitational.
• Other Cardinals to watch including Will Wise '26, who just ran the fastest 8k of his career (26:10.4) at the James Earley Invitational, as well as Calhoun who is coming off a sub-26 minute 8k at James Earley, finishing seventh overall with a time of 25:52.4.

The 2022 NESCAC Championship was won by Williams with Elias Lindgren winning the individual title.