Meet the MASCAC Men’s Cross-Country Rookie of the Year: Braeden Boucher
The Bridgewater State Bears Men’s Cross-Country team won the MASCAC Championship on Saturday, October 29th at Stanley Park hosted by Westfield State University. At the meet, the Bears were only four points ahead of Westfield State, which won them the championship. This was their first Cross Country championship since the Fall 2019 season and their 8th overall.
An integral member of the Men’s Cross-Country team is freshman Braden Boucher (he/him). Boucher placed sixth in the MASCAC Championship meet with a career-best time of 27:51.04 in the 8K competition. Boucher is majoring in the photonics program here at BSU.
Boucher graduated from Lowell Catholic where he played Men’s Volleyball and ran for the Track & Field team. Boucher played Basketball during High School but quit and replaced it with Cross Country and fell in love with the sport. In addition to Cross Country, Boucher will also run for the outdoor Track & Field team this season. Boucher also expressed interest in a club Men’s Volleyball team here at BSU.
Boucher picked BSU because of the Photonics program, with BSU standing as one the top schools for research. He told The Comment that he picked BSU out of a lot of schools, including UMass Dartmouth and the University of Bridgeport.
In his Freshman season, he won MASCAC Rookie of the Week twice, once for his Championship performance and once for his performance in the Babson & Wheaton meet on Friday, September 2nd. In this college debut, where he placed 18th with a 17:55.5 in the 5K competition. Boucher also posted times of 28:10.80 at the James Earley competition (hosted by Westfield State) and 29:02.7 at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational.
His performance at the MASCAC Championships earned him All-Conference Team honors with two other Bears, juniors Conner Mackie and Sam Steere. He also won MASCAC Rookie of the Year. He’s the first Bears Rookie of the Year since Trevor Wysong in 2016.
“Yeah, that was great. I wanted to be part of the top group on the team, and it was amazing to be a part of the top group in the conference, and especially the top freshman was great. I feel like my work over the summer paid off,” Boucher said.
The Bears Men’s Cross-Country team advanced to the NCAA D3 East Region championships on Saturday, November 12th, where the team went in 20th place and Braeden Boucher place 116th with a 29:15.8 time. They will go on to attend the NCAA Division III Championships this Saturday, November 19.
