Senior captain Mike Martin paced the Bates men’s cross country team for the fourth time in as many races helping the team finish seventh among 41 teams overall and second among 13 Division III squads at the Open New England Championships on Saturday at Franklin Park to earn Bobcat of the Week honors for the week of Oct. 7-13.
Martin finished the 8-kilometer course in 24:42 (4:57 per mile) to come in eighth place overall and first among Division III runners. He completed the race 10 seconds ahead of the next DIII competitor, Nate Sans of Middlebury, and placed the highest of any Bates runner at the event since Mike Danahy ’00 finished fifth at the 1999 edition.
The Bobcats scored their best team finish at the event since coming in fifth place at the 1984 race. Among Division III foes, the squad trailed only Middlebury (second place) and edged regional rivals such as Tufts (eighth) and MIT (ninth).
A native of Slatersville, R.I., Martin continued an impressive season which has included a first-place finish at the Bates/Colby Wave Races (Sept. 7), a second-place finish at the USM Invitational (Sept. 21), and a third-place finish at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational (Sept. 28).
Next, Bates travels to Colby College on Saturday for the Maine State Championships with a noon start.
