UMBC

J.J. Wetzel returns for his senior year as the UMBC men look to defend their America East Conference title.

UMBC, the defending America East Conference men’s cross country champions, were selected to finish third in the conference’s preseason coaches’ poll while the UMBC women were selected to finish eighth.  New Hampshire was picked to win the men’s league title while Boston U. was selected to win the women’s. 

The UMBC men’s team returns four of the top 16 runners in the conference championships last year that let UMBC to the title.  J.J. Wetzel finished eighth last year while teammates Shawn Shokry (11^th), Anthony Kelhower (13^th) and Blake Davis (16^th) all return to defend their league title. 

On the women’s side, Kathleen Galan and Morgan Little return as the top point scorers from a year ago.  Tawny Barin, entering her junior year, has been a consistent runner for the Retrievers and will add depth along with Allison Mathis and Emily Saltsman.  UMBC will welcome five newcomers to the team looking to boost their way up the conference latter. 

The University of New Hampshire was chosen as preseason favorite to win the America East Men’s Cross Country Championship, according to a vote of the conference’s coaches. The Wildcats received seven of eight possible first-place votes (coaches were not permitted to vote for their own team) and 63 points overall. The University of Maine followed closely behind with one first-place vote and 53 points.

UMBC (48 points) had one first-place vote and ranked third, followed closely by Boston University (41), University at Albany (36), Stony Brook University(34), University of Vermont (22), Binghamton University (19), and University of Hartford (8) rounded out the nine-team poll.

Boston University was chosen as the unanimous preseason favorite to win the America East Women’s Cross Country Championship. The Terriers received all eight possible first-place votes and 64 points overall. University of New Hampshire followed closely behind with 55 points.

Stony Brook University (44) received one first-place vote and ranked third, followed by University at Albany (40), Binghamton University (39), University of Vermont (36), University of Maine (22), UMBC (16), and University of Hartford (8) rounded out the nine-team poll.