BENNINGTON, Vt. – Southern Vermont College sophomore Stephen McCall (Brockton, Mass.) has been named the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week for the period ending October 16, 2016 as announced by the league on Monday.

This is the second time this year that McCall has picked up the top weekly honor after he earned it on September 26.

McCall had a stellar race for Southern Vermont on Saturday, finishing at 23rd in a tough field that included 193 runners at Western New England University’s Golden Bear Invitational. He crossed first for SVC once again, coming in at 28:04 for a split time of 5:39 per mile on the 8000 meter course.

McCall was joined in garnering league accolades by freshman teammate Davante Smith (Ellenville, N.Y.) who was tabbed the NECC Rookie of the Week for the fourth time this year. That allowed SVC to sweep the men’s cross country awards for the sixth time this season, now doing so after each meet the team has participated in.

Smith also ran extremely well for Southern Vermont on Saturday, placing third for the Mountaineers at the Golden Bear. He came through with a time of 28:57 on the 8k course, setting a split time of 5:50 per mile to take 49th overall.

McCall, Smith and SVC are back at it this upcoming Saturday with their final regular season race, Williams College’s Plansky Invitational (12 p.m.) at Mount Greylock Regional High School being the team’s final chance to prepare for the upcoming NECC Championship.

– #LetsGoSVC –