The Massachusetts men’s cross country team finished fourth out of seven teams in Saturday’s Orange Classic Invitational, held in Syracuse, N.Y.
Delhi College won the meet with 35 points, upending second-place Syracuse by four. Le Moyne College finished third with 67 points, and the Minutemen finished more than 30 points ahead of S. Rose, Binghamton and Niagara, in its first ever Orange Classic Invite.
Youth prevailed at the Orange Classic, as freshman David Wishart of Syracuse won the race with a time of 27:24. Wishart was one of eight underclassmen to finish in the top-10.
“It’s hard to say what we expected because we were unfamiliar with the competition. This is the first time we’ve been to this particular meet, and I was surprised to see how close the race turned out,” UMass men’s coach Ken O’Brien said.
Sophomore Ryan Corbett and junior Andrew McCarron, who were acting as captains for the race, finished first and second among UMass scorers, with times of 28:25 and 28:40 respectively.
“It was a tough five-mile course. We raced on Drumlin Golf Course, which is known for its hilly terrain. We had some guys battling a flu this past week, and I thought we held up well,” O’Brien said. “Any loss of strength from the flu would have showed up when they had to dig down deep for an extra boost. It wasn’t bad during the week, but you never know until you’re under the gun.”
The Minutemen raced as a team for the first time this year, finishing with four runners in the top 25, and all runners within 29 places of each other.
“We don’t have one or two runners to necessarily win every race, but it’s a team game and when we finish as a group we get good results. Our top three runners, McCarron, [Ryan] Corbett and [Sean] Corbett all finished within 15 seconds of each other,” O’Brien said.
Freshman Michael Dulong finished fourth for the Maroon and White, with a time of 29 minutes. Junior Joshua Williams finished 11 seconds behind Dulong, followed by juniors Matthew Thomas and Matthew Clark who brought up the rear for Minutemen scorers, with times of 29:42 and 30:01 respectively.
“I’m impressed by the way we’re starting to come together as a team. I think this was our strongest meet, and coming in second among the [4] D-I teams, shows that we can compete,” O’Brien said.
The Massachusetts women’s Cross-Country team competed in the Orange Classic Invitational this past Saturday. Binghamton won the meet with 27 total points, and the Minutewomen placed second with 54 points.
“The team just fell short of a win,” said Coach Julie LaFreniere. “At the midpoint of the race, things were looking good. Alexis Anzelone was on the heels of the first two Binghamton runners, and Tricia Silva, Kate Markopoulos and Cuisle Kierans were in front of Binghamton’s third, fourth, and fifth runners.
“We were well-positioned to win the meet. But over the next 1.2 miles and the final stretch, Binghamton put all five in front of our second runner to grab the win. Their runners were stronger and faster at the end of the race.”
Alexis Anzelone continued to lead the team, placing fourth overall. Silva and Markopoulos were close behind her, finishing 10th and 11th. Kierans and Amanda Dahlberg finished 13th, and 16th respectively.
While LaFreniere is proud of the team’s accomplishments, she acknowledges that they still have a ways to go. The meet on Saturday provided her with some insight into what the Minutewomen need to concentrate on improving: the second half of the race. This is especially important because the season only gets more challenging in the coming weeks, when the Minutewomen up the ante and make the transition from 5,000- to 6,000-meter races.
“It was a very good effort for our women and they competed like a team.” LaFreniere said. “We have to work on finishing the second half of our race. We still have time and a lot of hard work ahead of us to prepare for the championship part of our season.”
The team next competes at Franklin Park in Boston, on Friday, Oct. 10.
