BALTIMORE – The UMass Lowell women's cross country team completed the three-peat on Saturday in Baltimore, taking home the America East Conference Championship for the third consecutive year. The men picked up a conference title, as well, marking the third year in a row that the River Hawks have swept the championships.  
 
Senior Kenzie Doyle (Swansea, Mass.) set a personal and America East Championship record in the women's 5k race, finishing with an outstanding time of 16:19.2 on her way to the individual conference title. 
 
"Kenzie ran the best race of her life," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "I'm so excited to see what she can do in the next few weeks."
 
Doyle dominated the competition, taking the lead right from the start. She was pleased with her record-breaking performance, but was even more ecstatic about the team victory. 
 
"Record-breaking time is news to me," exclaimed Doyle. "I'm really happy with that. I'm really happy with how the team performed most of all. I remember crossing the line and trying to cheer everyone in. Once everyone was in, the thing that mattered most to me was that we won the meet. I was really happy with that, more so than my individual title." 
 
Just behind Doyle and joining her on the America East All-Conference First Team was graduate student teammate Izzy Giesing (Bradford, Vt.), finishing in fourth place with a 16:59.6 mark. Sophomore Sarah Ross (Agawam, Mass.) followed with an eighth-place finish, earning a personal-best time of 17:37.4 and Second-Team All-Conference honors. Ross' finish made three River Hawks in the top ten runners. Ross also added the America East Cross Country Elite 18 Award to her collection, which honors the event medalist with the highest GPA. Ross boasts a 4.0 GPA in Plastics Engineering.
 
Overall, the women had five runners in the top 14 and seven in the top 25, as graduate student Caroline O'Shea (Nashua, N.H.) crossed the finish line in 11th place with a personal-best time of 17:44.2 and freshman Mary-Kate Finn (Nashua, N.H.) earned a 14th-place finish with a personal-best 18:00.9 mark, both earning a spot on the America East All-Conference Second Team, as well. 
 
Junior Mary Yount (Northampton, Mass.) and graduate student Rachel Sessa (Tewksbury, Mass.) finished out the scoring for the River Hawks, as Yount finished in 21st place with a career-best time of 18:16.5 and Sessa cruised to a 18:24.8 time for 25th place. 
 
"Our women completely exceeded my expectations," said Gardner. "They put themselves in a great position and never gave an inch. It was awesome to watch."
 
For leading the teams to another sweep of the conference championships, the UMass Lowell coaching staff was named as the 2022 America East Coaching Staff of the Year for both the men's and women's programs for the third year in a row.