RESULTS

LOWELL, Mass. – Senior Jan Wouter Van Den Akker (Groningen, Netherlands) flew to a 23rd-place finish in the men's gold 8k, helping lead the UMass Lowell men's cross country team to 11th place at the Paul Short Run Saturday morning at Lehigh. 

"I thought we ran decent," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "I think Sean Kennedy-Wonneberger was the only one that ran particularly well, and even he can race better. However, no one ran poorly either, so overall, we are okay with placing 11th knowing we have a lot of room for improvement."

Van Den Akker crossed the finish line with a time of 23:58.8, while the junior, Kennedy-Wonneberger (East Haddam, Conn.) earned a 24:17.9 mark for 44th place. Hunter Marion was next, taking 90th with a time of 24:42.0. 

Graduate student Henry Farrington (Essex Junction, Vt.) (114th, 24:50.4) and senior Will Benoit (Fairhaven, Mass.) (118th, 24:52.4) were followed by junior Ethan Mashtare (St. Albans, Vt.) (196th, 25:24.0) and senior Landen Vaillancourt (New Ipswich, N.H.) (199th, 25:24.6), while Joe Young (Dorchester, Mass.) (224th, 25:32.3) and freshman David McKinnon (Bloomsbury, N.J.) (275th, 25:59.8) rounded out the River Hawk runners in the men's gold 8k. 

15 runners competed in the open men's 8k as well, with freshman Devin Moreau (Tyngsboro, Mass.) running attached and leading the way in 42nd place (25:15.1), while junior Hatim Boukhtam (Abington, Mass.) (25:34.3) and senior Andrew Benassi (Reading, Mass.) (25:34.8) finished back-to-back in 68th and 69th, respectively. 

Next up, the River Hawks will travel to the Bruce Kirsch Invitational in Hopkinton, N.H. next Friday, October 11.