The men’s and women’s cross country teams head to New Britain, Connecticut, on Saturday to run at the Northeast Conference Championship.

The men’s 8K race begins at 11 a.m. The women’s 5K finals follows at noon.

The Red Flash men’s team was picked to finish third in a poll of the NEC’s coaches in the preseason, while the women were tabbed to finish second.

Both of head coach Doug Hoover’s teams enter this weekend’s championship meet confident and looking to place higher than the preseason predictions.

“This team is way more confident and mentally stronger than what we were last year,” said junior Colin Kelly.

On the women’s side, sophomore Shannon Cody believes that it will be a very competitive championship race.

 “Central Connecticut is probably the favorite, but it’s going to be a really close race between us and a few other top teams,” said Cody. “No team is winning by a large margin.”

In its last action on Oct. 19, the men finished first out of 28 teams at the Gettysburg Invitational.

“We have a chip on our shoulder from last year, coming in second place (at the NEC finals),” said Kelly.

The women’s team’s last action was also at the Gettysburg Invitational on Oct. 19. SFU placed second out of 26 schools. Junior Madison Wright finished third individually at Gettysburg and Cody placed 10th.

“There are always a lot of nerves in the week leading up (to NECs), but mainly we’re all super-excited,” said Cody.