WINTHROP, Mass. – After leading the Norwich University men’s cross-country team to its first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship since 2017, second-year Head Coach Michael McGrane has been tabbed as the GNAC’s Coach of the Year, as announced by the league office on Friday afternoon.

The 2022 campaign was nothing short of prosperous for the Cadets, both individually and as a team.  Judson Nash (Hampden, Maine) coasted to an impeccable seven GNAC Men’s Rookie of the Week accolades, while Colby Makin (Westerly, R.I.) captured a Runner of the Week nod for week six of competition.  Both Nash and Makin led Norwich’s efforts at the NCAA Div. III Mideast Regionals last month.

At the GNAC Championships, Matt Webster (Centreville, Md.) paced the Cadets with a third-place spot.  Nash, who checked in behind Webster, earned GNAC Rookie of the Year honors after finishing as the top freshman at the 8K race, becoming Norwich’s first Rookie of the Year since Jack McNally snagged it in 2016.  Webster, Nash, and Chance Boulware  (Martinsburg, W.Va.) earned spots on the All-GNAC First Team, while Andre Knapp  (Northborough, Mass.) landed on the Second Team.

McGrane, aided by first-year assistant Allie Gratton, spearheaded the Cadets’ return to the summit of the GNAC after a second-place finish in the title race in 2021.  Norwich took home the crown behind a dominant 37 points, 14 points ahead of runners-up Colby-Sawyer College.

The 2022 campaign saw strong showings at competitions such as the Vermont State Meet, Keene State Invitational, and the Suffolk Invitational.  The Cadets closed the year with a 19th-place finish at the Div. III Mideast Regional Championships at St. Lawrence University.