HOPKINTON, N.H. – The UMass Lowell women's cross country team competed hard at the NCAA DI Cross Country Northeast Regional, finishing in 20th place as a team on Friday afternoon at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds in Hopkinton, N.H.

"We ran great," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "Both teams are so young, and it's hard getting in your first real championship race like that. In the women's group, we had six out of the seven run their personal bests for their career, and for some, I guess, in their first season for this year. We couldn't really ask much more for them, and we were hoping to finish somewhere in the top 20, we were 20th. They ran faster than I anticipated them to run, and the future looks really bright when you have that many young kids run well and that mature in a race like this. We're really pleased." 

UMass Lowell finished in 20th place overall out of the 37 teams that competed in the women's 6k event. The River Hawks had six runners achieve personal bests in the race, including freshmen Anna Fondakowski and Gracie Richard (Weymouth, Mass.), sophomores Georgia Brooks (Groton, Mass.) and Salma Boukhtam (Quincy, Mass.), and graduate students Sarah Ross (Agawam, Mass.) and Delaney Swanson (Swanzey, N.H.).

Leading the River Hawks in the women's 6k event was Brooks, who crossed at a 21:20.9 mark, earning 81st place. Ross followed, placing 112th with a time of 21:42.9, while two River Hawk runners were closely behind, in Boukhtam (138th place, 22:00.9) and Fondakowski (149th, 22:07.1). 

Finishing back-to-back, Swanson clocked in at 22:22.6 for 161st place, while Richard took 162nd place with a time of 22:22.7. Sophomore Lauren Long (Lunenburg, Mass.) rounded out the River Hawks in the 6k race, finishing in 203rd place (23:04.0), respectively.