The University of Hartford men's cross country team closed out their fall season in the NCAA Northeast Regional Cross Country Championships today. The team placed 34th as a unit in the 10k race.
 
"It was a pretty good day for the team," head coach Roger Busch said. "The guys ran well knowing it was probably the last race of the year. It's typically a race where the better teams in the region go out hard, so we just laid back at the beginning and it went pretty well and we knocked off a couple of teams."
 
Senior Chris Helminski was the Hawks' top finisher, with a time of 33:05 to place him at 138th overall on the day. Helminski's consistency during meets has led him to be in Hartford's top two finishing spots in every race he competed in during his senior season.
 
"It was a pretty large improvement for Chris this season from last year, and the course was significantly tougher than last year," Busch added. "Kyle Hamel was having a really good day but cramped at the end. Willy Pierce delivered one of the best 10K performances in school history for a freshman. All-in-all it was a good performance, and now we'll get a break before indoor track gets started in three weeks."
 
Pierce followed Helminki for the Hawks to log a 33:20.8 time, landing him 156^th overall. Pierce most recently finished first among the Hawks at the America East Cross Country Championships in October, which saw him place 46^th overall on that day.
 
Rounding out the men's times were junior Rourk Marlow (207^th, 32:23.9), sophomore Evan Jaworski (213^th, 34:39.3), senior Kyle Hamel (220^th, 34:55.2), and freshman Nick Ackley (222^nd, 34:58.0).
 
Hamel and Marlow each posted their career-best 10k times this weekend after improving upon their most recent Northeast Regional starts from earlier in their careers.