Mohamed Hussein ’18 took first place overall for the fifth time this season, remaining unbeaten against Div. III competition this season. His performance, along with the other competing Amherst runners, helped the purple and white take second place in a field of 55 teams at the NCAA Northeast Regional meet this past Saturday. Amherst narrowly missed nabbing the first-place title, falling by just one point to their rival.

Hussein took the first-place title by finishing the race in 24:39, an improvement upon his fifth place finish at the meet last year and time of 25:30.

Captain Dan Crowley ’16 continued to shine in his senior season. He took seventh place, finishing in 24:56. As a testament to his consistency, this meet marked the sixth time this season Crowley finished in the top 10.

Kevin Connors ’17, Raymond Meijer ’17 and Craig Nelson ’18 all finished in the top-25 to round out the scoring runners for Amherst. Connors earned 16th overall by racing to a 25:18 finish. Meijer finished three spots behind in 19th with a time of 25:21. Nelson crossed the line just eight seconds later to take 25th overall.

Captain Jeff Seelaus ’16 and Tucker Meijer ’19 also turned in strong races for the purple and white in the field of 380 runners. Seelaus finished in 46th overall earning a time of 25:49 while Tucker Meijer earned a 75th place finish finishing in 26:07.

The second-place finish earned Amherst an automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Championship meet. The team will travel to Winneconne, Wisconsin to compete this Saturday, Nov. 21.

Last year, Amherst took ninth overall at the national meet, competing against 32 other teams. Hussein was the purple and white’s front-runner last season, earning 23rd overall on the national stage that pitted him against 280 other runners. Amherst will look to him to continue his dominant season this weekend.

The meet is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m.