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This past weekend in Sunken Meadow, New York, the University of Maine Men’s Cross Country team vied for the America East Conference Championship. The Black Bears, riddled with injury, battled for what would potentially be their second-ever conference title. On an oversized course that consisted of laps of a huge field near the Stony Brook University campus, The Black Bears, emotionally and physically worn down from a long season, gave a valiant effort, battling for a fourth-place finish in the conference behind perennial powerhouses New Hampshire and Stony Brook, as well as Boston University, led by British transfer and contender for the national championship in the mile, David Proctor.
Maine, which was seeded fourth behind the same three teams in the preseason rankings, confirmed the conference coaches’ predictions. At the meet, in which the lowest score wins and scores are determined by adding up the places of the top five runners for each team, Maine received 114 points, beating out the University of Maryland Baltimore-County, Binghamton University, Albany, Vermont and the University of Hartford. Though finishing right where they were projected to despite injuries and other setbacks, overall the team was not satisfied.
“We’re all really disappointed with conferences. I mean, we came in with huge hopes, because we were that good,” said sophomore Brendan Carr.
Individually, Miles Bartlett led the Maine squad, finishing the 8,125-meter course in 12th place, crossing the line in 26:39. He was followed closely by fellow sophomore Chris Harmon, who placed 17th, running 26:47. Chuck Therriault, Donnie Drake and Dave Englehutt rounded out the scoring five for the Black Bears, placing 23rd, 30th and 32nd, respectively. Though dissatisfied with the team result, Maine saw promising news in the form of a pair of strong individual performances from Corey Bean and Donnie Drake.
Bean, a first-year member of the team, was the sixth man for the Black Bears at the race, running 28:03. Captain Donnie Drake, plagued by injury all season, showed promise, running his best race of the season, scoring for the team in 27:23.
On the women’s side, Maine also fought their way to a fourth-place finish, as the hosting Stony Brook Seawolves dominated, placing all five of their scoring runners in the top 10 for an incredible score of 38 points. The Seawolves ended powerhouse Boston University’s three-year run as the women’s team champion. Boston University and New Hampshire, two of the most dominant women’s programs in the conference, finished second and third, respectively. The Black Bear women scored a total of 131 points, good enough to beat out Binghamton, Albany, UMBC, Vermont and Hartford.
Star sophomore runner Jess Belliveau placed sixth in the 5,000-meter contest, finishing in 18:04, earning her a spot on the all-conference team, the only Black Bear to receive the honor on that day. Other scorers for the women’s team were sophomore Elonnai Hickok, running a time of 19:06 for 23rd place, sophomore Laura Brustolon, who placed 26th in a time of 19:20, freshman Chelsea Leeman and junior Steph Jette rounded out the top five, placing 36th and 40th, respectively.
Despite coming away from the America East Championships empty-handed, the Maine squads will look toward their next race, the NCAA Regional Championships on Nov. 10 in Boston. Barring the outside chance that either team qualifies for the national championship, this will be the last race for both squads this season.
Reflecting on the season and looking ahead to Regionals, the team recognizes they are young, with both rosters being dominated by underclassmen. The men’s team beat up on the University of Connecticut earlier this season and gave the Massachusetts team a good fight. The women’s team performed well in some key meets, and Jess Belliveau’s second-place finish at the New England Championships show that both teams have a lot of promise for the coming track seasons.
The team has the next two weeks off before heading to Boston. Hopefully the break between meets will allow injured runners to recover and the teams time to focus on the goal ahead. Carr summarized it best, saying, “Despite all of our struggles, if we can pull it together and work as a team, the result at [NCAA] Regionals could be outstanding.”
Bangor Daily News