Marc Brandmeyer, Shelby Whitman Win NECC Championships to Take Runner of the Year Honors

Marc Brandmeyer, Shelby Whitman Win NECC Championships to Take Runner of the Year Honors
Nov 02, 2014

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Southern Vermont College Cross Country saw a pair of amazing performances Saturday at the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championships with a Mountaineer on both the men's and women's teams leading their respective races to take the individual titles with record-setting performances.

Men's freshman Marc Brandmeyer (Bennington, Vermont) and women's sophomore Shelby Whitman (Bennington, Vermont) both received the NECC Runner of the Year awards with their first-place finishes while Brandmeyer also took home the NECC Rookie of the Year accolade.

Brandmeyer was the first runner to cross the finish line in the 8000 meter race, finishing with a personal-best time of 26:29, breaking his previous record by 58 seconds. That time was also good enough to move him up to second on the all-time SVC record list.

Brandmeyer is the first Mountaineer on the men's side to collect a conference Rookie of the Year honor since Nick Murray took the NECC award back in 2004. He is the first SVC runner to pick up a conference Runner of the Year laurel since Dan Dix ran his way to three straight Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) top honors from 1999-2001.

Whitman led the women's field at Saturday's Championship race, coming through with a time of 20:26, a new personal best by 23 seconds that also moves her into second on the SVC all-time women's 5000 meter record list.

Whitman's top placement is the best finish by an SVC women's cross country runner in program history, making way for her to receive the team's first conference Runner of the Year honor. The previous-best finish at a league meet for the Mountaineers was now-head coach Kathleen Newton's third-place showing at the 2003 GNAC Championship; Newton, who was selected by her peers on Saturday as the 2014 NECC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year, still owns the program's top 5K time of 20:07 that she set at the 2002 GNAC meet.

The Mountaineers are set to head back to Stanley Park in Westfield, Massachusetts next Saturday, November 8, for the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships.