NEW YORK—The UMass Lowell men's cross country team shone Friday afternoon at the 2022 IC4A/ECAC Championships, posting a fourth-place team finish at Van Cortlandt Park.
 
"The men's team took a nice step forward from Paul Short. We beat some teams that beat us there. We are also much closer to some other teams from two weeks ago," noted Head Coach Gary Gardner. "We're really looking forward to conference in a few weeks."
 
Competing against some of the top teams in the country, senior John Riley (Quincy, Mass.) led the crew with a seventh-place finish in the men's 8K. The Massachusetts native clocked a 17:51.9 split at the 5.5K mark to sit in ninth going into the final stretch but pushed the pace to cruise across the line at 24:08.6.

"I went in to this really wanting to win, but I ran well still and am running a lot more mileage than the guys who beat me today. I'm confident that I can bridge the gap on them later this fall," remarked Riley. 
 
The River Hawks saw several other top finishes across the board, showcasing the team's depth and development throughout the season. Graduate student Drew Everett (Amesbury, Mass.) crossed the line next for UMass Lowell in 24:35.5. Hitting the 5.5K split just seconds after Riley, Everett used his pace wisely to creep up from 23rd overall to finish 18th overall.

"I think our team took another step in the right direction today. Week-to-week, we have started closing the gap on some of the bigger teams in the region," commented Everett. "With a few more solid weeks of training, we believe we'll have a strong presence come championship season." 
 
Daniel Cosgrove (Boxford, Mass.) joined his classmate just moments after Everett finished the 8K course. After dropping in the rankings at the midway point, Cosgrove channeled the team's speed training to advance from 37th overall at the 5.5K checkpoint to finishing 29th with a final time of 24:53.1.
 
The remainder of the UMass Lowell scoring squad all clocked top-50 finishes in the Empire State. Junior Jeffrey Allen and graduate student Joseph Walsh (Auburn, Mass.) claimed 33rd and 42nd after crossing in 24:58.0 and 25:07.8, respectively.
 
Juniors Hunter Marion (Templeton, Mass.) and Henry Farrington (Essex Junction, Vt.) rounded out the top-seven finishers for the River Hawks with neck-and-neck finishes. Marion toed the line at 25:16.0, just 1.6 seconds ahead of his classmate Farrington, to take 45th and 46th at the ECAC/IC4A Championships.

"The race today was a big step in the right direction for us," said Riley following the race. "We ran much better as a team than we did two weeks ago and competed much better against teams from the northeast. We run better as the season goes on, so this was a great race to build off as we approach conference and regionals." 
 
Next week, the River Hawks will put the finishing touches on at the CCSU Mini Meet before tackling the America East Cross Country Championships at the end of the month.