BOSTON – The Colby Sawyer cross country team heads to Boston for the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championships taking place on Saturday. The women's 6K and men's 8K events take place at historic Franklin Park. The women's race kicks off at 2:30 p.m. followed by the men's race at 3:15 p.m.

2021 GNAC Cross Country Coaches' Polls
2021 GNAC Women's Cross Country Coaches' Poll

• 1. Colby-Sawyer (8) - 118
• 2. Simmons (3) - 113
• 3. Regis - 92
• 4. Saint Joseph's Maine - 91
• 5. Emmanuel - 81
• 6. Norwich - 66
• 7. Lasell - 53
• 8. Saint Joseph (CT) - 34
• 9. Elms - 33
• 10. Dean - 30
• 11. Rivier - 21

2021 GNAC Men's Cross Country Coaches' Poll

• 1. Colby-Sawyer (8) - 98
• 2. Norwich (2) - 88
• 3. Saint Joseph's Maine - 82
• 4. Regis - 72
• 5. Emmanuel - 55
• 6. Saint Joseph (CT) - 48
• 7. Dean - 41
• 8. Elms - 25
• 9. Lasell - 24
• 10. Rivier - 17

HEADLINE
The Chargers enter the championship race as the favorites, ranked first in both the women's and men's Coaches' Polls, released Friday in advance of the race.

COLBY-SAWYER STORYLINES

• The Chargers men's cross country team looks for the three-peat, having successfully won the GNAC Championship in both 2018 & 2019.
• The women's team looks for its second-straight GNAC Title, coming off the league championship in 2019.
• The men's team is led by first year Dylan Flewelling (Oakland, Maine) who recorded the second-fastest time ever run by a Charger in the 8K back on Sept. 18 at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, posting a time of 25:51.70.
• The women's team is led by senior Shannon O'Connell (Peabody, Mass.) with a best finish of 19:34.21, with her mark also coming at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational.

ABOUT THE COURSE

• Franklin Park is a famed cross country course, hosting countless high school and collegiate meets throughout the year. It is home to the Massachusetts All-States Meet as well as the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship every other year.
• The Park includes courses for 5,000 meters, 6,000 meters, 8,000 meters and 10,000 meters. Franklin Park also won the honor of hosting the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 1992, as a special 12.5-kilometer course was used for competition. Each course includes variants of three major loops, the stadium loop, the Bear Cage hill loop and the wilderness loop.
• The Chargers competed on this course earlier this season, when on Oct. 16 as part of the Suffolk Invitational. At that event the Charger men finished in 18 of 23, the highest finishing GNAC team in the field.

Coaches Corner
"We are very excited for the GNAC Championship tomorrow", said head coach Ryan O'Connell. "Both the women and men are ready to go. We have put in some great work leading up to this and we are looking forward to going after some of our big goals that we set back in August. This is a special group and I have never been around a team that gets along and supports each other as much as this crew does. Tomorrow is going to be a fun day."