BOSTON, Mass.  –  The UMass Lowell women's cross country team continued to take shape with a solid performance at the New England Championships 5K midst the rain and chilly temperatures, Saturday, in Franklin Park in Boston. 

"It was really good, all of the top five ran their fastest 5K of the year," said Head Coach Gary Gardner.  "There is room for growth and improvement, but we're right on schedule."

The young UMass Lowell team finished 23rd of 38 teams.  New Hampshire won the event placing five runners in the top 25 and seven in the top 37.  They finished 101 points ahead of the rest of the field.

The America East Conference Championships are three weeks away and much of the Saturday's work in Franklin Park was in preparation for that.

"We're definitely five deep," said Gardner.  "You want to try to stay under 20-minutes.  This was the first time we've had five runners under 19-minutes and 45-seconds.  Now it's just a matter of seeing how much they improve upon that."

The first River Hawk across the finish line was sophomore Jaclyn Solimine (Haverhill, Mass.) completing the course in a personal best of 18:36.22.  The time was 30-seconds faster than she ran the same course a year ago.  It was good for 59th place, 58th among scoring runners.

"That's a pretty big improvement," said Gardner.  "She putting in the time and work and she's learning how to race and she's running a lot faster than she ever has before."

Sophomore Erin Donovan (Lowell, Mass.) was next to run the course finishing 92nd out of 262 runners with a time of 18:53.07.  It was her first race of the season.

"It was good to see her out there getting her feet wet," said Gardner.  "We'll need her at the conference meet.  She ran as well as we could have expected."

Freshman Alli Wood (Chelmsford, Mass.) placed 144th with a time of 19:22.59.  Junior Megan Mahoney (Billerica, Mass.) was next among River Hawks competitors completing the course in 19:32.62.  Freshman Marissa Richards (Lowell, Mass.), running in her first race in a month, was the fifth UMass Lowell runner completing the course in a time of 19:42.72.

The River Hawks return to competition Saturday, October 18, at the Pre-National Meet in Terra Haute, Indiana.