SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (November 3, 2025) – The Western New England men's and women's cross country teams see two of their own take Golden Bear Athletes of the Week this week, while a successful first weekend for WNE women's ice hockey sees one of their own also earn honors this week.
Women's cross country's
Olivia Kay was the star of the race at this past weekend's Conference of New England Championships, hosted at Gordon College on Saturday afternoon. Kay ran the best race of her season by running a time of 23:41.48, a career-best time overall. Kay placed 14
th overall in the race and earned the third-fastest recorded 6k time for a WNE runner. The Western New England junior improved her personal-best time by over a full minute this past weekend, with the previous race, the WNE Golden Bear Invitational on October 18, being her previous best at 24:31.
Men's cross country saw
Lucas Franco lead the Golden Bears at the CNE Championships this past weekend, running the 8k event in 27:19.14. Franco was six-for-six in best times after that run, improving his race time in every meet this season. The conference championship race marks the ninth-fastest time run in the 8k by a WNE runner, while Franco took 23
rd place overall in the event.
Women's ice hockey's
Michaela Birmingham came up with three big points this week over two games to get the Golden Bears out to a perfect 2-0 start to the season. Birmingham opened the weekend with an assist in a 3-1 win at Worcester State, a game that featured a third-period comeback for the Golden Bears to come up with the opening day victory. Birmingham contributed heavily in the home opener the next night, picking up an assist in the game and following up with the game-winning goal in overtime, as WNE took down Rivier University by a final score of 4-3. Birmingham has a quick three points to begin the season and took 11 shots during the pair of weekend games.
Western New England cross country will head to the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships in two weeks for their next race of the season, hosted at St. Lawrence University on Saturday, November 15.
WNE women's ice hockey gets back in action this coming Friday, November 7, at 7:00 PM, opening Conference of New England play at the University of New England.
