Nov. 6, 2011

Results | View the women's finish | Gardner: They exceeded what I was looking for

Junior Kelly Walton (Nahant, Mass.) placed 16th overall and earned All-East Region honors for the third straight year as UMass Lowell finished fourth at the NCAA East Region Cross Country Championship Sunday afternoon at Franklin Park.

UMass Lowell compiled 207 points and finished behind only Stonehill (57), Bentley (99) and Philadelphia (112). Saint Anselm placed fifth with 212 points and edged Adelphi (213) in a tight field. Le Moyne (222) took seventh while Merrimack (249), American International (250) and Southern Connecticut (265) rounded out the top 10.

Bentley and Stonehill advance to the NCAA Championship, along with the top five individual runners not among the top two teams.

Jeptui Cherutich of AIC won her second straight individual title in 21 minutes, 54.4 seconds. Tara Dooley of Bentley took second in 21:58.7 and was followed by Sarah Simonetti of Philadelphia (22:03.8), Amy Varsell of Bentley (22:39.9) and Indira Avila of Queens College (22:57.3).

The NCAA Championship is hosted by the Great Northwest Athletic Complex, Saturday, Nov. 19 at Plante's Ferry Athletic Complex in Spokane Wash.

Though the River Hawks were just short of qualifying for the NCAA Championship, their finish marks a significant improvement from two weeks ago, when they took eighth at the Northeast-10 Conference Championship.

The top 25 finishers comprise the NCAA All-East Region Team.

Walton ran the 6K course in 23:23.8 while junior Mary Hazen (Framingham, Mass.) finished 37th in 24:14.8. Senior MaryAnn Ford (Woburn, Mass.) took 42nd while junior Jasmine Mahotiere (Lowell, Mass.) placed 53rd in 24:35.8 and freshman Chelsey Pepin (Derry, N.H.) 59th in 24:41.6 to cap the scoring.

Freshman Bridget Meehan (Nashua, N.H.) took 67th in 24:59.5 and junior Colleen Kennedy (Wilmington, Mass.) finished 72nd in 25:03.4 to round out UMass Lowell's effort.