The Men and Women’s Cross Country teams headed to nearby Nashua, N.H. this past weekend to compete in the 2018 American East Championships. The American East Championship was the most important meet for the ‘Cats so far this year. The meet consists of the top performers for every team in the conference with opportunities to showcase talents prior to the NCAA regional meet.
The Women ran a 5k run at the local course with junior Meg Champagne crossing the finish line first for the Wildcats. Champagne finished in 8th place, almost beating her record time for her career. Champagne has been a standout runner all season and earned all-conference honors for the third straight year. Champagne finished with a time of 17 minutes and 39 seconds.
First-year Elenora Olsmats was next to finish after Champagne coming in 33rd place with a time of 18 minutes and 27 seconds. The impressive first-year student has continued to improve as she shattered her previous 5K personal record time by 30 seconds.
Following Olsmats, sophomore Cayla Barreto also set a new personal record coming in 40th place with a time of 18 minutes and 37 seconds.
Closely behind was junior Madeline Quigley taking 42nd place with a time of 18 minutes and 42 seconds. Quigley set a new personal record with this time beating her old time by 10 seconds.
Finishing less than a second apart, Caroline Mahoney and Kira Nolan came in 44th and 45th place respectively. Nolan set her new personal record while Mahoney just missed beating her best time by less than half a second.
Rounding off the Wildcats Women’s team were seniors Danielle Gajewski and Madeline Brandon taking 49th and 50th respectively. Both these two runners also set new personal best times for the 5k run.
The Wildcats took 6th place in the meet overall finishing with 157 points. Albany won the meet finishing with a score of 46. Albany’s Hannah Reinhardt won the Women’s race.
The Men’s team ran an 8K race the same day in Nahua. Senior William Ulrich set a new personal best finishing in 26th place with a time of 25 minutes and 48 seconds. Ulrich set his previous personal best over a year ago at the Coast to Coast 8K.
Junior Nicholas Sevilla-Connelly was next to place for the ‘Cats Men’s team coming in 34th place with a time of 25 minutes and 55 seconds.
Next, placing back to back, sophomore Aidan Sullivan and senior Davis Clark finished in 37th and 38th places respectively. Both of the runners set new personal records for their 8k race times.
Sophomore James Wilkes and senior captain Dean Yost finished one spot apart taking 42nd and 44th places respectively.
Rounding out the ‘Cats Men’s team was junior Alexander Saveliev finishing in 49th with a time of 26 minutes and 17 seconds, which also a new personal best.
The Men’s team took sixth with a score of 157 points. The UMass Lowell team was the top performers in the race winning it with a score of 43. UMass Lowell’s top runner, Paul Hogan, won the race.
Both the Men and Women Wildcats Cross Country teams will be sending teams to Buffalo, N.Y. on Nov. 9 to compete in the NCAA Northeast Regional meet.