ORONO, Maine – The Binghamton University men’s and University of New Hampshire women’s cross country teams won the America East Championship Saturday morning at University of Maine. The title is the Bearcats’ first since 2009 while on the women’s side, the championship is University of New Hampshire’s second in a row.
Eric Speakman was the individual winner on the men’s side, winning the 8K race for the second time in three years, finishing in 24:41.23. Sophomore Elinor Purrier was the women’s individual champion, taking the 5K race with a time of 17:19.42.
On the men’s side, the Bearcats, whose title is just their second all-time, tallied up 59 points en route to the spot atop the conference. Three Bearcat runners finished in the top 10, led by Matt Johnson, who placed eighth with a time of 25:19.4. Jesse Garn (25:19.91) and Ethan Hausamann (25:21.51) finished just behind their teammate to round out the top ten.
UMass Lowell came in second place at this year’s championship with 62 points after placing eighth at last year’s event. The River Hawks had four finishers in the top 20, and four out of their top six competitors overall were freshman. Defending America East champions UMBC placed third as a team, ending up with 85 points. New Hampshire and Stony Brook round out the top five, scoring 114 and 115 points respectively.
Following Speakman were 2013 individual champion John Prizzi (24.42.32) of New Hampshire, who edged out UMass Lowell’s Robert Allen (24.42.33) for second place by just a tenth of a second. To round out the top five, River Hawk freshman Paul Hogan finished fourth (24:44.02), and UMBC Retriever Hassan Omar placed fifth (24:45.54).
The remaining top ten finishers, who were all deemed All-Conference selections, reside from Vermont; junior Dan Moroney (25:04.78) came in sixth, and senior Dylan Sounder (25:16.45) finished in seventh.
The University of New Hampshire dominated the women’s race, claiming first place at the America East Championship for the second straight year with 26 points. The Wildcats score is the lowest score for a conference champions since Stony Brook in 2010 (24) and the fifth-best mark in league history
The Seawolves finished runners-up for the second straight year, scoring 63 points. The Vermont Catamounts placed third for the second straight season finishing with 101 points. Closing out the top five were UMBC who finished with 122 points, and Albany closely following at 125.
The Wildcats were propelled to their conference championship by Purrier spearheaded the Wildcat attack, improving upon her sixth place finish at last year’s event. Four other Wildcats found themselves finishing inside the top ten; seniors Chelsey Serrano (17:47.86), Anne Twombly (17:51.05), and junior Laura Rose Donegan (17:53.57) finished in the four through six spots, and junior Brianna Boden took home tenth (18:10.53).
Stony Brook’s Christina Melian finished the championship in second place with a time of 17:21.77, and Albany senior Silvia Del Fava closed out her America East cross country career with a third place finish at 17:30.37.
Rounding out the top 10, Albany senior Molly Pezzulo finished seventh (17:57.10), Vermont junior Alicia Clark took eighth (18:04.92), and Stony Brook Junior Tara Peck placed ninth (18:10.03).
For the second straight year, New Hampshire’s women’s coaching staff, led by head coach Robert Hoppler, took home the Coaching Staff of the Year Award. On the men’s side, America East Champion Binghamton’s staff, led by head coach Annette Acuff, garnered the honor. Their fellow conference coaches voted on the awards.
The Cross Country award ceremony also broke new ground on the Elite 18 award, which is given to a student exemplifying excellence both in their sport, and in the classroom.
Speakman took home the award for the men. The senior is majoring Business Management & Economics and currently holds a 3.89 GPA. New Hampshire’s Twombly took home the honor for the women; the senior is a studio art major, and maintains a perfect 4.0 GPA.
For full results, photos, highlights and more, visit Championship Central on AmericaEast.com.