Oct. 8, 2011

Results

Seniors Eric McDonald (Groveland, Mass.) and Jeff Veiga (Lowell, Mass.) placed 24th and 25th, respectively to lead the UMass Lowell men’s cross country team to 11th place at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Championship Saturday at Franklin Park.

UMass Lowell scored 292 points (25, 25, 34, 83, 126) and had three runners tripped up in a pileup 100 meters into the course, which curtailed its bid for a fourth championship in six years. The River Hawks are the only non-Division I team to have captured the prestigious race in 2006, 2007 and 2009.

The University of Connecticut won the title with 149 points while Dartmouth was the runner-up with 192 points. Boston University (211), Middlebury College (221) and Northeastern (240) capped the top five.

“We got caught up in that pile-up,” said head coach Gary Gardner. “We ran hard after that, but once we ran hard to get where we belonged, we just ran out of steam over the last mile, mile and a half of the race.”

The River Hawks were also limited to six runners after sophomore Chris Estrella (Lowell, Mass.) injured a calf in the melee and was unable to continue.

McDonald ran the 8K course 25 minutes, 25 seconds while Veiga was right behind in 25:25:27. Senior Danny Wang (Haverhill, Mass.) placed 34th overall in 25:38 while senior Greg Wilson (Chelmsford, Mass.), who lost his shoe in the race (he stopped to put it back on), placed 84th overall and 83rd among scoring runners in 26:22.

Freshman Matt Cioe (Mansfield, Mass.) placed 127th/126th in 26:54 while freshman Brendan Adams (Pembroke, Mass.) took 220th/219th in 28:14.

“We just need to let this go and move forward,” Gardner said. “We’re fit as a team. We need to prepare for the most important meets of the season, which are ahead of us.”

Junior Glarius Rop of American International won the individual title in 24:12.

The meet drew 282 runners representing 43 teams.