West Point Dominates NECTC Championship
This past week the NECTC wrapped up its fall season at the Mighty Man Olympic Tri. However, due to poor water quality, the race was turned into a duathlon with a 1.9 mile run to start things off.
West Point continued its dominance in the conference with overall titles for female individual, female team, male team and combined team!
Male Individual:
Spencer Ralston (St. Mike's) came into the race as the favorite, and with an easy path to becoming overall champion by finishing in the top 6. Jacob Slife (West Point) was out this week as he prepares for a potential pro start at the US National Championships down in Sarasota next weekend. The change to a duathlon changed the outlook of the race, making Drexel's Jonathan Joyce into a real contender and he took full advantage of that. Coming in just 6 seconds behind Ralston, Joyce was able to clock the fastest bike split and come out on the last run in a dead heat. From there Joyce posted the fastest run 2 split in a time of 1:49:08 to take the overall victory. Ralston and Remington Ponce-Pore (West Point) wrapped up the podium.
With the 196 points Ralston was able to secure the overall champion with 492 points on the season. Nick Chatel and Thatcher Shepard of West Point finished 2nd and 3rd on the season with 467 and 435 point respectively.
1. Spencer Ralston (St. Mike's) - 493pts
2. Nicholas Chatel (West Point) - 467pts
3. Thatcher Shepard (West Point) - 435pts
Female Individual:
With Teresa Groton (West Point) out of action for the first time this season, there was an opportunity for some other females to make their mark and Payton Boylston (West Point) did just that by winning by a 5 minute margin in place of her teammate. Mary-Alice Davison (Cornell) made her first appearance of the year and didn't disappoint with a time of 2:14:40 she took second on the day. She also had the fastest run 1, the second fastest bike split, and the third fastest run 2. Anna Shveshkeyev (Boston University) continued the tradition of her university's top female finishes in the conference by taking 3rd on the day in a time of 2:17:30
With the winning performance at Montauk by Boylston she was able to wrap up first place in the conference standings with 488 points. She also took second at Westchester and fourth at Lake George. West Point's Hannah White finished the season in second with 464 points, and Northeastern's Anders Broussard took third on the season with 416 points.
1. Payton Boylston (West Point) - 488pts
2. Hannah White (West Point) - 464pts
3. Anders Broussard (Northeastern) - 416pts
Team Awards:
West Point absolutely dominated the team awards this year with a perfect score of 500 points for all three categories: Male Team, Female Team and Combined Team. They not only won all three olympic distance races, but both sprint distance races as well. The team was led by Teresa Groton and Jacob Slife who at this point are regulars at dominating in the conference. However, it is the depth of their rosters that put them over the top and even without their two stars at the championship they still took the wins. On the female side their athletes finishing in the top ten in the conference included Payton Boylston, Hannah White, Leighton McAlpin, Teresa Groton, Hailey Conger and Madison Jones. On the male end their top ten included Nicholas Chatel, Thatcher Shepard, Remington Ponce-Pore, Jacob Slife, Gabe Fuhrman, Graham King, and Wolfgang Drake.
Female Team
At Montauk Cornell made a solid statement finishing as the second overall female team with 664 points led by Mary Alice Davison's second place finish. Columbia knocked BU off the podium with 520 points led by Sophie Ohrn. At the end of the day our overall female standings come as no surprise.
1. West Point - 500pts
2. Boston University - 350pts
3. Northeastern - 330pts
Male Team
For the first time in recent history Columbia was able to work its way into the top three teams in the conference standings with 390pts to wrap out the season. This was led by a second place finish at the conference championship and Westchester. Northeastern took its second team podium of the day with a third place finish to match its female squad.
1. West Point - 500pts
2. Columbia - 390pts
3. Northeastern - 345pts
Overall Team
With perfect male and female scores West Point wrapped up first by over 100 points. Northeastern and Columbia put together a hard fought battle, but Columbia's 40 point victory at the championship wasn't quite enough to overcome the deficit.
1. West point - 500pts
2. Northeastern - 365pts
3. Columbia - 345pts
See Montauk results here
See Overall Season results here
