Nov. 19, 2010
The miles that the members of the UMass Lowell men's and women's cross country teams amass in the summer months have just started to bear fruit in recent weeks.
If UMass Lowell's performance in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship two weeks ago is any indication, the season will stretch into December. That is the goal each year and it is abundantly made clear by Head Coach Gary Gardner and his staff.
"Basically we need repeat performances from the NE-10 Championship, if not then to improve upon them," said Gardner. "The last two weeks of training is starting to taper. On both sides, three of five runners ran really well (at the NE-10 Championship). Hopefully we can get 4 or 5 out of five to run well at the regional."
UMass Lowell hosts the NCAA East Region Cross Country Championship Sunday morning at Franklin Park in Boston. The men's 10K race is scheduled for 11:00 while the women's 6K is slated for 12:00.
The River Hawk men, ranked No. 13 in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II poll, bring a four-year stronghold on the East Region crown into Sunday's race and have finished second only twice since 2000. The UMass Lowell women captured titles in 2005 and 2008 and have finished runner-up every other year since 2004.
The top two teams move on to the NCAA Championship Dec. 4 in Louisville, Ky., along with the top two individuals and individual runners in the top five places not on the top two teams.
The UMass Lowell men, fresh off their fourth NE-10 Championship in five years on Oct. 31, bring plenty of experience into the race with three returning runners - senior Angus MacDonald (Methuen, Mass.) and juniors Eric McDonald (Groveland, Mass.) and Danny Wang (Haverhill, Mass.) - in the top 12 places last year.
The River Hawks, in fact, were without junior Jeff Veiga (Lowell, Mass.) for last year's race. Veiga took second overall at the 2010 NE-10 Championship ahead of MacDonald (third), McDonald (sixth).
Also buoying the lineup is freshman Chris Estrella (Lowell, Mass.), who placed 17th at the NE-10 meet, just ahead of Wang, who took 22nd.
A key point for the men could be the results of runners five and up: Wang, sophomore Brendan Devlin (Weston, Mass.) and freshman Steve Fitzsimmons (Methuen, Mass.).
"Danny has been our only health issue, but every week since Pennsylvania (Kutztown Division II Challenge, Oct. 23), he's run better and better," Gardner noted. "When those three guys are on, we're pretty comfortable."
The River Hawk women, ranked No. 2 in the latest USTFCCCA East Region poll, have peaked at the right time, having run solid races at the Kutztown Division II Challenge and the NE-10 Championship. In the former, the River Hawks finished behind four ranked teams - No. 3 Shippensburg, No. 19 Kutztown, No. 14 Millersville and No. 20 Stonehill - while their top five runners were separated by only 58 seconds.
At the NE-10 Championship, sophomore Kelly Walton (Nahant, Mass.) placed fourth while senior Sarah Bonomo (Tewksbury, Mass.) and sophomore Nicole Skotz (Tewksbury, Mass.) placed ninth and 15th to earn All-Conference honors.
Sophomores Mary Hazen (Framingham, Mass.) and Gina Butler (Dracut, Mass.) placed 32nd and 37th, making for only a 1:13.9 difference in UMass Lowell's top five.
"Kelly and Nicole ran really well at the Conference meet," Gardner noted. "Sarah made a little tactical error but ran well otherwise and Neha Bhatia (Westford, Mass.) had an off day. If we can put those things together, we'll be a better team for sure."
UMass Lowell finished second to Stonehill at the NE-10 Championship, but Gardner particularly has his eye on Saint Rose, Bentley and Southern Connecticut, which finished third through fifth and were separated by only nine points.
"I think with the women, there are three other teams that are exactly like us and it makes our margin for error a little smaller," said Gardner. "Our top kids have all run at the NCAAs in the past. Their best races have been in the last couple of weeks, so I think we're in a good spot."
