New Hampshire Edges Out Stony Brook In Preseason Coaches Poll

New Hampshire Edges Out Stony Brook In Preseason Coaches Poll

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.- University of New Hampshire, two time defending America East champions, received five of the possible eight first place votes, and earned 61 total points to claim the top spot in the 2008 America East Men’s Cross Country coaches’ poll. This year’s poll results are painfully familiar for the Stony Brook Seawolves (second in the polls with 59 points and three first-place bids), who fell to the Wildcats in last year’s championship by a mere two points.

UMBC, which received one first-place vote, shares third place with the University of Maine (41 points) followed by Binghamton University (39), Boston University (38), University at Albany (20), University of Vermont (17), and University of Hartford (eight).

New Hampshire had four runners finish in the Top 10 at the 2007 championship and is returning two of them-senior Matthew O’Connor and junior Joshua Kearns-who finished fourth and eighth, respectively. Recent graduate Robert Edgerton, who finished second overall last year, will be a big loss for the Wildcats, who will look for senior Brent Powers and junior Wesley Dinnan-both top 20 finishers-to step up.

Stony Brook is also returning two of their previous four top ten finishers, not the least of which being junior Alex Felce who finished in first place at last year’s competition and will prove to be a valuable asset. Also returning is sophomore Tim Hodge, who took fifth place.

Tied for third in the polls are Maine and UMBC with 41 points each. UMBC had one Top 10 finisher in sophomore Paul Zwama, who finished 10th, and managed to hold off the top Black Bear finisher, Miles Bartlett, who came in 12th.

Binghamton sophomore and team MVP Andrew Ugolino will return after his squad-leading 22nd place finish at the 2007 championship meet.

Boston University dropped from their third place finish last year to sixth after graduating five key seniors, including Nick Goodman, their only Top 10 finisher last year. The Terriers will be looking for junior Eric Ashe to lead a young squad.

Albany graduated two key seniors, but will be led by senior Brian Yurkewecz, who finished 16th last year.

Vermont will open their season down at UMBC on September 13, to take on this year’s host of the America East championship (November 1). Junior Doug Maisey is the Catamounts top returnee after finishing a team-best 84th at the NCAA Regional meet last season.

The Hawks are excited about the return of junior Jonas Hampton, who led the team in all of their meets this season.

For more information on America East men’s cross country, including complete 2007 championship results, log on to www.americaeast.com.