BENNINGTON, Vt. — Southern Vermont College junior Justin Ferguson (Broadalbin, N.Y.) has been selected as the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week for the period ending October 18, 2015 as announced by the league on Monday.

Ferguson led the men’s team and came in second overall with a season-best mark in a tough field at Saturday’s Western New England Golden Bear Invitational. His time of 26:22 was 30 seconds faster than he posted in his last race and 46 seconds ahead of the time he put up at last year’s Golden Bear, helping the Mountaineers take second overall as a team. This is the fourth time out of five races this season that the junior has collected the Conference accolade.

Ferguson was joined in receiving Conference accolades by junior captain Shelby Whitman (Bennington, Vt.) who picked up the Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Week honor, Bennington College freshman Noah Froh (Milwaukee, Wis.) who was tabbed the NECC Men’s Cross Country Rookie of the Week, and BC sophomore Anikka Kristiansen (Keene, N.H.) who was chosen as the NECC Women's Cross Country Rookie of the Week.

Both Southern Vermont teams are back in action this Saturday, October 24 with a collective men’s and women’s 5k at Williams’ Plansky Invitational, the last race before the NECC Championship takes place October 31.