BOSTON, Mass. – For the second consecutive season, Emily Mackay has advanced to the NCAA Cross Country Championships. On Friday at the NCAA Northeast Region Meet – which was held at Franklin Park in Boston - the fifth-year standout placed third overall in the women's 6K race with a time of 20:36.

The top two teams as well as the top four individuals not on the top two teams earned automatic bids to the NCAA Championships, which will be held next Saturday at Florida State. Mackay finished behind Amanda Vestri of Syracuse (20:05) and Kayley Delay of Yale (20:28). Syracuse and Harvard were the top two teams so Mackay was the second-highest finisher not on the top two teams.

The third-place finish is the highest ever by a Binghamton men's or women's runner at the NCAA Division I Northeast Region Meet. Erik van Ingen was seventh in the men's race in 2009.

Last season, the NCAA Northeast Region Meet was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mackay earned her trip to the national meet as the America East individual champion – an honor she attained again two weeks ago. At the 2020-21 NCAA Championship Meet this past March, Mackay was 14th overall.

By placing among the top 25 runners on Friday, Mackay was named to the All-Northeast Region Team for the first time in her career. The only other Binghamton women's runner to earn that honor at the NCAA Division I level was Katie Radzik in 2005 (23rd) and 2006 (25th).

The Binghamton women's team, meanwhile, placed 16th overall out of 36 squads. That ties its highest finish at the NCAA Northeast Region Meet, which was set in 2007.

Senior Aziza Chigatayeva was 41st overall (21:41), followed by sophomore Sheridan Talada in 120th place (22:53), graduate student Elisabeth Van Tassell in 142nd place (23:05) and fellow graduate student Kaylee Stone in 151st place (23:22).

There were 250 finishers in the women's race.

On the men's side, senior Dan Schaffer placed 23rd overall in the 10K race with a time of 31:00. In the process, he earned All-Northeast Region honors for the second time in his career. Schaffer was also 23rd in the 2018 race.

Sophomore Josh Stone was Binghamton's second runner, placing 67th overall with a time of 32:12. Junior Matthew Cavaliere was 90th (32:32) followed by fellow junior Marty Dolan in 120th place and senior David Leff in 129th place (33:24).

Binghamton's men's team placed 14th out of 35 teams. 

There were 235 runners in the men's 10K race.

NOTES: The women's 6K NCAA Championship race will begin next Saturday at 10:20 a.m. and will be carried live on ESPNU ... this marks the first time in program history that Binghamton has landed an All-Northeast Region honoree in both the men's and women's races … van Ingen earned the distinction in both 2009 and 2010.