STANDISH, ME – Emmanuel College completed the sweep with a team victory in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men's Cross Country Championship at Saint Joseph's College on Saturday afternoon. The Saints claimed the women's title earlier in the day and had never before earned a GNAC cross country title, for either gender, prior to today's events.

With all five scorers – including the individual winner - in the top 16 overall, Emmanuel totaled 49 team points to finish atop a highly-competitive field, as 19 points separated the winner from the fourth-place finisher in the conference race. An upstart Saint Joseph's team was the runner-up with 57 points, Norwich University placed third with 62 points and Johnson & Wales University was fourth with 68 points.

Lasell College finished fifth with 119 points, Mount Ida College raced to a sixth-place finish with 198 points and Albertus Magnus College tallied 202 points to round out the competitors in the men's event.

Emmanuel sophomore Sean Colford (Epping, N.H.) toured the 8K course in 27:49 to claim the individual title while Saint Joseph's freshman Cody Vachon (Shapleigh, Maine) finished as the runner-up with a 28:14 effort. A pair of Johnson & Wales runners followed, as Adam Sachs (Ellicott City, Md.) and Brian Dinan (Geneva, N.Y.) placed third (28:16) and fourth (28:18), respectively, and Emmanuel freshman Marco Caserta (Topsfield, Mass.) was fifth with a 28:22 time.

Norwich freshman Robert Nichols (Eliot, Maine) placed sixth (28:23), Saint Joseph's senor Faisal Abdillahi (Lewiston, Maine) finished seventh (29:02), Lasell sophomore Alex Weselcouch (East Haddam, Conn.) raced to an eighth-place (29:12) finish and Norwich sophomore Adam Miller (Claremont, N.H.) was ninth (29:15). Norwich freshman Logan Morton (Otis, Mass.) also claimed All-Conference honors – bestowed upon each of the top-10 finishers – by placing 10th with a 29:18 effort.

With the individual victory, Colford becomes the first Emmanuel College runner to earn GNAC Men's Cross Country Runner of the Year accolades. As the top first-year finisher, Vachon takes GNAC Rookie of the Year honors and Norwich third-year skipper Nick Cooper was selected, by vote of conference head coaches, as the GNAC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year.

2013 MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM:

Sean Colford, Emmanuel

Cody Vachon, Saint Joseph's

Adam Sachs, Johnson & Wales

Brian Dinan, Johnson & Wales

Marco Caserta, Emmanuel

Robert Nichols, Norwich

Faisal Abdillahi, Saint Joseph's

Alex Weselcouch, Lasell

Adam Miller, Norwich

Logan Morton, Norwich

MAJOR AWARD RECIPIENTS:

2013 GNAC Runner of the Year: Sean Colford, Emmanuel

2013 GNAC Rookie of the Year: Cody Vachon, Saint Joseph's

2013 GNAC Coach of the Year: Nick Cooper, Norwich

Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.