Senior Thomas Martin, of the men’s cross country team, was named NEC men’s athlete of the week last week.

The honor follows a 24th place overall individual finish at the New England Championship. Martin’s finish helped land the Bobcats in the 7th overall position in a field of 47 schools.

“The top 5 guys [who finish] score and the closer and faster our pack runs the better we are going to do. This was the main reason why we ran so fast and got 7th at New England’s. For me, I was hoping to be [in the] top 25 and run 25:00. So getting 24th and running 25:11 against all those guys made it a great day,” said Martin.

The 7th place finish propelled Quinnipiac into the 11th ranking among all cross country teams in the Northeast.

“It feels great,” said Martin of the team’s accomplishment, “The team, the past four years, has improved tremendously. We went from 30, 27, 18, to 7 this year and it shows everyone how much our cross country program has improved.”

The men’s cross country team, which has competed in five meets so far this season, as finished both 1st and 2nd twice along with the 7th place finish at the New England Championship.

“The team is really excited, especially because our conference meet is on November 1 and this was a huge boast for us. It was a good stepping stone. Our season-long goals have been to place top 10 at New England’s and to win our conference meet,” said Martin.

In the NEC championship, the Bobcats look to face perennial power and four time defending champion St. Francis (PA).

“From the way our conference looks, it is going to be a two team battle between us and St. Francis (PA) and we really want to dethrone them.”