BEVERLY, Mass. — Roger Williams University looks to make it five-straight CNE Championship victories this season, as the Hawks headline the 2025 Men’s Cross Country storylines. The championship will be held this year at Gordon College on Saturday, November 1.
 
Curry College
The Colonels enter the season under new leadership in the form of Sarah Gallo. Most recently she was the head cross country and track and field coach at Grafton High School, and has spent over 20 years in sport training. She takes over a team entering it’s fourth year in existence, and will see their inaugural class graduate this year. Headlined by Alex Nason, who holds the eight best times in program history, the team will look to have someone break the 30 minute mark for the first time. Nason’s program record of 30:10.0 is likely to fall, and a number of runners could break it. The Colonels will start their season on Saturday at the James Sheehan Invite.
Additions: Sarah Gallo (Head Coach), Alexander Dorsky, Anders Fratta, Linus Kiser, Blaise Denson, Chance Payton, Logan Sheldrake-Hernandez
Graduates: Alex Jodoin
 
Endicott College
Endicott will look to build on its third place CNE Championship finish from last season, led by a youth movement in 2025. Junior captains Henry Bybee (Hampton, N.H.) and Jonathan Rodrigues (Walpole, Mass.) will be tasked to lead a Gulls' roster that features four freshmen, one sophomore, three juniors, and two seniors. Endicott opens up its 2025 season on Saturday, August 30, in the “Battle of the North Shore” at Gordon College.
Additions: 4
Graduates: 8
 
Gordon College
Gordon is led by fourth-year head coach Mickey Miela. The Fighting Scots claimed sixth at last year’s CNE Championships. Gordon opened the 2025 season at the Battle of the North Shore meet where the Fighting Scots outdueled crosstown rival Endicott. Freshman Aidan Roberts was Gordon’s top finisher at the meet with a second-place finish.
Additions: 3
Graduates: 2
 
Nichols College
The Bison, under the tutelage of third-year head coach Makayla Norton, will look to the new year with four returning student athletes, including notable names like graduate student Gregory Sadlak and junior Jack Crowley. Last season, Sadlak was crowned CNE Runner of the Week after placing in the top-10 at the Pop Crowell Invitational (9/14), while Crowley clocked a season best 8k with a 27:21.0 at the WNE Cross Country Invite (10/19), also a top-10 finish. The Bison open the season this coming weekend at the U Hartford Cross Country Invitational at Keney Park. 
Additions: None
Graduates: Jack Hearn, Ryan Rispoli, Dylan Seville
 
Roger Williams University
The Roger Williams University men’s cross country team opened its 2025 season Friday evening at the NCAA Division III Pre-Nationals Meet in Spartanburg, S.C., with Nathan Evans (Lincoln, R.I.) finishing 65^th. The Hawks enter the year after capturing their fourth-straight CNE title, led by three-time CNE Runner of the Year Nathan Tassey (Whitman, Mass.). Tassey, Evans and Harrison Krause (Glastonbury, Conn.) each earned All-Conference honors last fall. At the Mideast Regional, RWU finished sixth overall, with Tassey winning the individual title and joining Dylan Beggins as All-Region performers. Tassey capped the season with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA National Championships, and with 15 returners, the Hawks look poised for another strong campaign.
 
Suffolk University
CNE Finish: 2nd of 10 | NCAA DIII East Regionals Finish: 8th of 33
Returners: 6 | Graduated: 7 | Newcomers: 2

Suffolk men’s cross country has been the conference’s staple runner-up since joining the league ranks in 2021 and the Rams aim to race to the CNE’s top spot this season. 
Senior captain Hayden Green, a three-time all-leaguer performer and 2024 U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-East honoree a year ago, looks to lead the veteran-heavy roster of six returners and two newcomers. 
Under the leadership of nine-year head coach Will Feldman, the Rams 2025 season opens Saturday, Aug. 30 at the Suffolk Short Course Classic at Highland Park in Attleboro, Massachusetts
 
University of Hartford
After an unprecedented 2024 season, Hartford Men’s Cross Country looks to compete for an NCAA tournament appearance for the first time ever. The Hawks finished with five top-five finishes in the 2024 season, and are looking to build off that into 2025. In addition to their top five finish, Hartford would also take home the ECAC championship in 2024. Head coach Connor Green enters his third year at the helm welcoming much of the previous roster back for the upcoming season. Amongst these returners, graduate student Riley Brutvan (Gardiner, N.Y.) coming off a 2024 season where he was the ECAC DIII North Individual Champion and a CNE All-Conference Third Team selection (13th Place Finish at Championships). Additionally, the Hawks welcome back sophomore Owen Klein (Coventry, R.I.) who is coming off a season filled with three CNE Rookie of the year honors. Hartford has six tournaments on the docket for the upcoming season. Following the regular season the Hawks look to compete in both the ECAC and NCAA Championships. The Hawks will be  kicking things off with the second annual University of Hartford Invitational at Keeney Park on Saturday, September 6th.
 
Additions: John Forbes, Mikael Isaacs, Gavin Mize
Graduates: Jovan Joseph, Parker Main
 
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Additions:  Everett Miller, Alexandro Velasquez, Brendan Purvis, David Sader, Nate Lowe
Graduates:  Robbie McCue 
 
With arguably the most depth the Wentworth men’s cross country team has had in recent times, head coach Emily Gustavson enters her third season with optimism for her squad. After posting a fourth place finish in 2024, the Leopards are looking to a solid returning group of student-athletes and a talented incoming class to be in the mix for their first conference title since the 2017 campaign. Leading the way for the returners are senior Ryan Ballard, a three-time all-conference performer, and Ezra Blasko, the conference’s rookie of the year a season ago. Mark Murphy, Joey Cotta, Jack Newton, and Teddy Doyle are expected to round out the top runners for the Black & Gold. A talented rookie class looks to round out the depth for Wentworth, who add five student-athletes to this year’s roster.

Western New England University

Coming off a season where the Golden Bears men’s cross country team earned a pair of first place finishes as a team and three top five finishes overall, WNE will look to improve on an eighth-place finish at the Conference of New England Championships from a season ago, adding five true freshmen to the roster in 2025. 
The Golden Bears will be led by Head Coach Jon Harris, who is in his fifth full season as head coach of the program, but has been with Western New England since his time as a student-athlete, graduating from the university in 2004. Harris’ squad will be senior-heavy, with six total seniors on the roster for 2025, including newcomer Owen Atkins (Blackstone, Mass.), John Bieszcczad (Grantham, N.H.), Joshua Farrell (Pawtucket, R.I.), Frank Kelly (Lowell, Mass.), Issac Pedro (Ludlow, Mass.), and Lance Tomlinson (Ludlow, Mass.). The Western New England men’s cross country team finished 19^th overall at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships a season ago, with eight runners competing in the event, including seven returning Golden Bears. 
WNE men’s cross country kicks off their 2025 season this Saturday, September 6, at 12:00 PM in the Silloway Vermont State Maple Syrup Challenge at Vermont State University, Randolph.

Additions: Owen Atkins, Lucas Franco, Christian Goranson, Alejandro Rivera, Travis Ryley, Gianni Santagata
Graduated: Nicholas Carlson, Matt Provost
 
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE OF NEW ENGLAND
Originally founded in 1984 as the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), and reconstituted as the Conference of New England (CNE) in 2024, the CNE is an NCAA Division III athletic conference composed of 11 full member and five associate member institutions throughout the New England region. Its membership aims to provide student-athletes with a positive experience in their pursuit of excellence through high academic standards, quality competition and a meaningful student life. The Conference administers championships in 21 intercollegiate sports.