I don't usually respond to message threads, but I do want to say that I take offense at this one which bashes the wonderful school I have coached at for 22 years. Students who choose to come to Connecticut College do not consider themselves "stuck" there, but rather come for a great liberal arts education in a beautiful campus setting. And yes, we have plenty of students matriculating at CONN who have achieved 33 or higher on the ACTs or the equivalent in SAT scores, our Men's and Women's Cross Country teams are perennially awarded Academic All-American status, and we have numerous of individual Academic All-Americans as well.
Since this purportedly is a thread about running, I will tell you a little about ours. In terms of Men's Cross Country and Track & Field, our student-athletes have a long history of success. In recent years, these accomplishments include our Cross team finishing 4th in both the NESCAC Championship and New England D. III regional, qualifying for Nationals in 2002; our current Assistant Coach Adam Fitzgerald (who during his T&F career won the NESCAC, New England D. III, and All New England 10,000 meter titles) earning Cross Country All-American honors with his 25th place finish at Nationals in 2003; and a number of individual Cross Country National qualifiers including Keith Drake in 2006. In Track & Field, Drake just returned from Nationals in Wisconsin where he competed in the 1500, having also qualified for Nationals this past Indoor season in the mile. Drake ran 4:11.75 for the mile Indoors, won the New England D. III title in that event, and ran 3:53.75 for the 1500 Outdoors. Our returning Cross Country Captain Brian Murtagh has won NESCAC and New England D. III titles in the steeplechase, was the New England Indoor 3000 meter champion in 2007, and finished 2nd in the NESCAC Cross Country Championship and missed Nationals by one place with his 13th place regional finish his sophomore year. This past spring, freshman Shawn Mulcahy won the New England Division III Championship 10,000 meter race in 31:27 and finished a very close second in the NESCAC Championship 5000 meter race to National 5000 qualifier Jesse Faller of Tufts.
So please if you are considering any college or university, D. I, II, or III, NESCAC, UAA, or some other conference, go to the source and speak to those in the know at the specific academic institution. You will probably find out that the students that are there do not consider themselves "stuck" but have chosen their school for a whole host of reasons. Anyone interested in learning more about Connecticut College and our distance running program can e-mail me at
.
Jim Butler, Coach
Connecticut College
Men's Cross Country
Asst. Head Coach T&F