Something has always managed to slow down Lee Cattanach.

Cattanach has dealt with an assortment of injuries during his Eastern Connecticut State University cross country career.

Through all the adversity, he's persevered while navigating a bumpy, sometimes frustrating and painful road.

On Saturday, Cattanach added another chapter in his remarkable comeback, becoming the program's first runner in 38 years to qualify for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.

Cattanach, a Williams School graduate from New London, accomplished the feat by placing 20th out of 373 runners in the NCAA New England Division III Regional on Saturday at Mount Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Mass. He finished the 8,000-meter course in 25 minutes, 57 seconds.

Pretty impressive considering a quadricep injury disrupted his training routine this fall. And he missed all of last season with a foot injury.

"If someone asked me a month ago if I'd be going, I would have said, 'no,' " Cattanach said Monday. "I had a really good month of September, the best month I've had, and then I got injured and the month of October was a waste.

"But I guess things have been clicking despite not doing a whole lot of running. It is unexpected."

Cattanach, a junior, felt confident heading into Saturday's regional, which was held on the same course where he won the Little East Conference championship earlier this month, topping his previous best finish of fifth place. The result also made him the first individual conference champion from Eastern.

He knew he would have to top his time that day (26:24) to have a shot at earning one of seven individual qualifying spots for nationals. He ended up finishing 27 seconds faster than his last race there.

"The whole time during the race I was doing the mental math, figuring out who was ahead of me and who I had passed," Cattanach said. "I knew with about 400 meters left that as long as I didn't get passed, I would still be going (to nationals). But I still passed people.

"When I crossed the line, I knew I was pretty much guaranteed of going."

His performance was satisfying for another reason. He finished near the bottom of the field in his last regional race during his freshman year and suffered setback after setback the last few seasons.

"I was thinking about it for awhile," said Cattanach, an All-New England runner at Williams. "It was a little surreal. The last time I competed at a regional race I had been 240th. It was like redemption from my freshman year.

"It was really cool. It showed the work I put in."

Now he's facing the biggest race of his life.

He calls his latest injury an annoyance. Monday's heavy rain forced him to do his workout on the treadmill. He'll leave for the nationals on Thursday.

The championship race will be held Saturday at the Golf Center at King's Island in Mason, Ohio.

"Being 20th in the region takes a lot of pressure off," Cattanach said. "People aren't expecting you go out there and be an All-American. I'm sort of going there to stick my nose in it and see what happens."

He reached out to former Connecticut College All-American Michael LeDuc, who won the national championship last year, for some advice.

LeDuc advised Cattanach to take advantage of the experience.

"He told me you need to go in there and run with the best of them and know what it feels like so the next time you're there you know what to expect," Cattanach said.

That's right.

Cattanach already is planning a return trip to the nationals for his senior season.

A nagging injury or two isn't enough to slow him down.

"I know if I can get all the pieces to work, I can run with anybody," Cattanach said.

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe