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.