UMBC

The UMBC men’s and women’s cross country team’s competed at the America East Championships on Saturday afternoon as the men took to the course in an 8,000 meter run and the women in a 5,000m run. The UMBC men placed fifth with 118 team points while the women took seventh with 164 team points.

Mike Lansing finished second to lead five Maine runners in the top nine as the Black Bears won their first America East Men's Cross Country Championship at the University of New Hampshire course. Victoria Botticelli of Boston University was the individual champion and led the Terriers to their eighth America East Women's Cross Country Championship in nine years.

The Maine men finished with 28 points to outdistance New Hampshire, which had won the three previous championships, with 58. Stony Brook was third with 71 points followed by Albany (76), UMBC (118), Boston University (165), Binghamton (194), Vermont (201), Northeastern (280) and Hartford (300).

For the Retreivers, Izudin Mehmedovic was the top finisher as he finished the course in a time of 25:06.90 which was good enough for 13th place overall. Shawn Shorky was the next UMBC runner to cross the finish line in 19th place in a time of 25:24.30. Finishing in 27th place overall was Ryan Cartwright with a time of 26:03.10 and finishing 7 seconds later in 29th place was J.J. Wetzel.

The Boston University women won their 13th Cross Country Championship in 16 tries with a score of 27 points. New Hampshire, which won its first championship last year, was a distant second with 85 points. Stony Brook finished third with 93 points, followed by Binghamton (117), Vermont (139), Albany (160), UMBC (164), Northeastern (173), Maine (188) and Hartford (330).

Cara Wettlaufer and Stefanie Thomas, who finished 12th and 13th respectively, trailed the lead runner by less then a minute as the finished in times of 18:14.20 and 18:16.60. Finishing third for UMBC and 44th overall was U’Tonna Sherrod with a time of 19:15.00. Kathleen Galan placed 50th overall with a time of 19:28.20.