Emmitsburg, Md. – The UMBC men's cross-country team kicked off its 2026 campaign with a solid second-place finish at the Mount St. Mary's Duals on Friday afternoon.

"At this meet, we wanted to put the spotlight on our younger athletes and our middle-distance specialists, and they absolutely delivered. I couldn't be prouder of their performances," stated Retrievers' head coach Mike DuPaul.

Senior Liam Meginniss battled to a strong runner-up finish in the 5,000k, clocking in at 16:05.72, just six seconds behind Howard's Noah Douglas.
"Liam had a standout performance today," said DuPaul. "His confidence should be really high after this race."

William Carranza (16:11.46) and Michael Heinemann (16:12.09) surged to impressive fourth and fifth-place finishes, respectively. "William looked strong; he passed a ton of runners in the second half of the race," DuPaul added.

Senior Sofiane Compaorg powered to a top-10 finish with a time of 16:19.48. Ryan Hartranft (11^th, 16:39.67), Kohl Girley (13^th, 16:45.94), and Weston Carr (15^th, 16:52.19) closed out the scoring for UMBC.

Freshman S Baba Swaray made an impressive debut, breaking into the top-20 with a strong 17:12.54 for 16th place.

Howard won the event with 26 points, followed by UMBC (30 points).