Buzzard's Bay Race Preview

The NECTC heads to Buzzard's Bay this weekend where 100 conference points are up for grabs. There will be approximately 150 collegiate athletes from the NECTC in attendance coming from 14 different universities.

Female Individual Field:

Our female favorites will come as no surprise to those who have followed the conference the past couple years. Teresa Groton (West Point) comes in having taken the overall wins at both of our first two conference races this fall and is our heavy favorite to take the top step of the podium. Stephanie Doyon (Northeastern) was last year's overall winner in a time of 1:14:16 and appears to be the closest threat outside of Groton's own teammates. In order for this upset to happen Doyon will need to put some time into Groton in the final two legs of the race as Groton's swimming will be difficult to match. Other podium threats include Groton's teammate Hannah White, who took 3rd earlier this

season at West Point and Jenny Seuling (Bentley) who finished 10 seconds back in 4th. With that said we have loads of new names jumping into the mix this weekend and there may be a few hidden surprises!

Male Individual Field:

Like the females, our male favorite is no secret. Jacob Slife (West Point) has won several conference races in the past two seasons and right now is our run away favorite. Jacob finished 2nd overall at Lake George just seconds behind Spencer Ralston (St. Mike's) and had a 13+ minute gap on the 3rd place finisher. Ralston will not be racing this weekend so the next duel between those two will need to wait. Podium threats outside of Slife include his own teammates Wolfgang Drake , Remington Ponce-Pore, and Nicholas Chatel. This could easily be a West Point podium sweep unless one of our new NECTC athletes steps up to the plate. The race for the podium will lijkely come down to the run where Chatel will be working his way up to both Drake and Ponce-Pore whom have an advantage in the bike leg. Drake will likely have a slightly bigger edge with his swim being slightly better as well.

Female Team:

Our female team favorite continues the pattern as West Point appears to have the deepest squad. Last year's female team champions, UConn will be in contention for a podium spot as well bringing 7 members to the line. Coast Guard has 16 total females racing and could be a podium threat as well, but there are many new names on the list making it tough to guess.

Male Team:

West Point again has the strongest top 4, which is what matters for scoring. Outside of that Northeastern has had a successful start to the season, but does not appear to be brining their entire roster. The same goes for UConn who will be leaving a couple top performers at home for this one. The pure numbers of Coast Guard makes them a threat as well.