The 17th-ranked Middlebury men's cross country team hits the road for the NCAA Mideast Regional. The event will occur in Connecticut at Harkness Memorial State Park on Saturday with the winning team earning an automatic bid to the national championship.
 
ABOUT MIDDLEBURY

• Middlebury finished third at the NESCAC Championship two weeks ago, with three Panthers finishing in the top-eight spots.
• The squad moved up two spots in the national rankings following the conference meet.
• Middlebury opened the season winning the Silloway Maple Syrup Challenge and their fourth-straight Aldrich Invitational Title.
• The Paul Short Run and the Connecticut College Invitational featured several top-25 squads, with the Panthers finishing fifth in both events.
• Last year, Middlebury finished in third place at the Mideast Championship. 

PANTHERS TO WATCH

• Leading the Panther pack at the league meet was Benjamin Hughes, finishing in fifth place with a clocking of 24:58.7. When Hughes competed at Harkness Park earlier this year, he recorded a personal-best time of 24:42.8.
• Drew Donahue (24:30.0) and Ziggy Goddard (24:40.1) recorded their fastest times of the season on the same course that regionals will be held. Goddard earned sixth at the NESCAC Championship, followed by Donahue in eighth as the pair grabbed all-conference accolades. Goddard also placed eighth overall at the regional meet a year ago.
• The fourth runner for Middlebury at the conference meet was Shef West, turning in a 21st-place performance. The Panther recorded his personal best time at regionals a year ago, clocking in at 24:54.8.
• Breaking into the scoring positions this season has been a plethora of other racers including Cameron Miles, Harry Griff, Tucker Jakobe and Benjamin Prestes. All four ran their fastest times of the season at Connecticut College a few weeks ago, led by Griff with a clocking of 25:32.4. 

ABOUT THE FIELD

• There will be a new Mideast Champion as Cory Kennedy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), who won last year's event, is now competing at Colorado State University.
• Williams looks to three-peat, having claimed back-to-back team titles. The #14 Ephs recently won their conference-leading 22nd NESCAC Championship and fifth straight.
• The #7 Engineers are ranked first in the region, followed by the Ephs and #16 Amherst.
• Returning from the top-10 at regionals from a year ago are Williams' Nikhil Denatale (second), RPI's Vince Simononette (third), Nathan Tassey of Roger Williams (fifth), Middlebury's Goddard (eighth) and Vassar's Nick Lyndaker (ninth).
• Eph Charles Namiot will look to break into the top-10 spots, having just claimed the individual NESCAC Title.  

CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION

• Location: Harkness Memorial State Park (Waterford, Conn.)
• Host School: Connecticut College
• NCAA Selections
  • The top team from each of the 10 regions automatically qualifies for the NCAA Championship with 22 additional teams earning at-large bids.
  • The first seven runners from each region who are not part of a qualifying team will be selected to participate for a total of 70 additional individuals. 
• The top-35 athletes earn USTFCCCA All-Region honors. 

The NCAA Championship selections will be released by 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 17.