Nashua, N.H. – UMBC's cross country teams battled challenging conditions and some tough competition at the 2018 America East Cross Country Championships, held at Mines Falls.
Led by a 15th place finish by senior Kelsey Ponton (Laurel, Md./Reservoir), the Retriever women placed seventh out of the nine-team field, while the men placed eighth.
Temperatures hovered around the 40-degree mark and rain pelted the course during the competition.
Ponton missed an all-conference citation by one place and just over two seconds as she completed the 5k trek in 17:57.54.
Freshman Emmy Beyer (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) – the 53rd finisher overall - was second for UMBC, followed by classmate Morgan Casey (Silver Spring, Md./Montgomery-Blair) (60th), and juniors Kaya Knake (Canton, Mich.) (61st) and Briana Roberts (Pennsauken, N.J.) (62nd).
Albany's Hannah Reinhart (16:54.75) ran away with medalist honors and led her squad to its first-ever team championship, besting Stony Brook and Vermont.
On the men's side, seniors Nathan Nadal (Silver Spring, Md./Wootton) and Matt Kingeter (Glencoe, Md./Hereford) led the way, placing 23rd and 28th. Nadal slogged across the line in a time of 25:36.89 while Kingeter was just behind at 25:45.45.
Other scorers for UMBC were junior Brian Cave (Sykesville, Md./South Carroll) (59th), senior Matthew Kane (Sykesville, Md./Century) (60th) and freshman Chris Thoms (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) (61st).
Host UMass Lowell edged Stony Brook, 43-44, to capture the team championship.
