BOSTON, Mass. – The UMass Lowell men's track and field team collected some top finishes on Saturday at the Battle in Beantown, hosted by Boston University. 

"This was a great step forward for the team from a week ago," said head coach Gary Gardner. "That's what you hope for as you get more acclimated to the competition. The men had good performances across the board. It was great to see and sets us up for the next few weeks."

Graduate student Daniel Cosgrove (Boxford, Mass.) ran well in the mile, finishing in second place with a time of 4:04.47. Senior John Riley (Quincy, Mass.) was the second River Hawk to finish the mile, earning fifth place honors with a 4:05.81 mark. Graduate student Drew Everett (Amesbury, Mass.) followed in eighth place with a time of 4:07.08 while sophomore Wouter van den Akker (Groningen, Netherlands) crossed the finish line in 10th place with a time of 4:09.78. Another River Hawk picked up a second-place finish in the 300-meter run as graduate student Joseph Gaudreau (Wilmington, Mass.) finished with a time of 34.01. Graduate student Kashief Boganam (Kingston, N.H.) picked up 10th place with a 35.32 mark.

Four runners ran top-10 times in the 600-meter run, with freshman Bradley Diaz leading the way with a fifth-place finish and a time of 1:19.88. Fellow freshman Jonathan Stock finished just 0.4 seconds behind Diaz in sixth place with a time of 1:20.28. The third consecutive River Hawk to finish the 600 was graduate student Sean O'Neill (New Egypt, N.J.), whose 1:21.89 mark was good for seventh place. Freshman Michael Soucy (Methuen, Mass.) also found success, finishing in ninth place with a time of 1:22.29.

In the 3,000-meter run, junior Paul Neilan ran a time of 8:20.59 to earn the third place spot. Junior Tyler Sullivan (Walpole, Mass.) was right behind him in fifth place, finishing with a 8:26.26 mark. Sophomore Landen Vaillancourt (New Ipswich, N.H.) crossed the finish line in 10th place with a time of 8:35.58. 

The top River Hawk in the 400-meter run was senior Hunter Marino (Weymouth, Mass.), finishing in seventh place with a time of 49.74. Junior Adam Katerji (Shrewsbury, Mass.) earned the 10th spot with a 51.16 mark. In the 800, senior Timothy Champlin (Charlestown, R.I.) picked up eighth place with a time of 1:55.34 while freshman Hatim Boukhtam (Abington, Mass.) finished 0.35 seconds behind him in ninth place with a time of 1:55.69.

The 1,600 relay team of Bogannam, senior Ryan Casebolt (Boxborough, Mass.), Katerji and Gaudreau capped off the running events with a fifth-place finish and a time of 3:18.98. 

Moving onto the field events, in the Jarred Rome shot put, junior Luis Cadime (Lowell, Mass.)  threw a distance of 15.18 meters to earn sixth place honors. In the other shot put event, freshman Mukanya Kazadi (Woburn, Mass.) was the top River Hawk, finishing in fourth place with a 13.42-meter throw. Junior Zachary Cardoso (Newton, N.H.) and sophomore Jonathan Vixamar (Easton, Mass.) finished consecutively in sixth and seventh place. Cardoso earned a 13.09 mark while Jonathan Vixamar reached 13.02 meters. 

In the pole vault, junior Maxwell Davis (Stoneham) led the way, vaulting to a height of 4.25 meters for seventh place. Eighth place belonged to junior Daniel Cuddy (Hudson, Mass.), who reached 4.10 meters.

Next up, the River Hawks will compete in the John Thomas Terrier Classic, also hosted by Boston University on Friday and Saturday, January 27 and 28.