Senior Patrick Fullerton earned All-East Region honors for the second-straight year and led the Skyhawks back to the NCAA Championships for an eighth-straight year. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr)

Fullerton leads three All-Region performances as Skyhawks place second

DORCHESTER, Mass. (November 21, 2010) – The Stonehill College men's cross country team, ranked 20^th in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division II national poll and second in the East Region, clinched its eighth-straight trip to the NCAA Division II Championships with a second place finish at today's NCAA II East Regional at Franklin Park.

Stonehill and regional winners UMass Lowell, ranked eighth nationally, ran away from the pack to clinch the region's two spots at nationals. The River Hawks finished with 41 points by placing three runners in the top seven, while the Skyhawks posted 72 points behind three top ten performances. Southern Connecticut State University was third with 121 points, followed by American International College in fourth (130) and Bentley University in fifth (134). UMass Lowell's Jeff Veiga captured the individual title with his time of 30:08 over the ten-kilometer course.

Senior Patrick Fullerton (Bradford, Mass./Haverhill) led Stonehill as he earned All-East Region honors for the second-straight year with his fifth place finish in 31:14. Classmate Daniel Pilz (Newington, Conn./Newington) was right behind him in sixth with a time of 31:17, while junior Stephen Polito (Worcester, Mass./Doherty Memorial) rounded out the Skyhawks All-Region runners with his time of 31:34 to place ninth overall in the field of 186 runners and post his second career All-Region performance (2008).

Sophomore Sean Hanlon (Georgetown, Mass./St. John's Prep) had a strong race for Stonehill with his time of 32:23 to take 22^nd overall, while freshman Scott Waller (Andover, Mass./Andover) placed 30^th overall in 32:49 to round out the Skyhawks top five.

The Stonehill men will be joined at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville for the NCAA Championships in two weeks by the Skyhawks women's team, which captured their second-straight regional crown to advance to nationals for the 12^th-straight year. The men's championship will start on December 4 at 11 a.m., with the women's championship to follow at noon.