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The University of Maine cross country teams headed to Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville, Md. for the America East conference championship meets this past weekend.
In lieu of a 650-mile road trip the teams flew into Baltimore, giving them more time to prepare.
“Flying down to Baltimore helped the team’s spirits going into the race,” said senior captain Chuck Therriault. “It meant a lot that the athletic department cared enough about our success to fly us to our biggest meet of the season.”
With a day of practice behind them, the weather in their favor and a daunting 8-kilometer course in front of them, the men’s team finished seventh overall. The women climbed 5 kilometers of hills to take seventh as well. There are nine teams in America East.
The meet was generally considered to be a disappointment for both teams, who had been ranked much higher in preseason polls.
“Overall, I think the season was sub-par,” junior Miles Bartlett said. “We’ve been the most consistently good team at UMaine [in] the past five or six years, and we had a complete fallout this season.”
“With the talent we have returning next year, nothing but winning the America East title will be acceptable,” he added.
Individually, the freshmen talents set the pace for the Black Bears. Even with perpetual front-runner Bartlett in the race, Riley Masters covered the difficult course in 26:20.80 to finish 16th overall and first among the freshmen.
“Miles and I planned on running together for most of the race, [but] he started fading around the 3-mile mark and shouted to me to keep going. I think he was proud of me,” Masters said.
Bartlett followed in 25th place with a time of 26:43.10.
“I haven’t run well tactically,” Bartlett said. “Sitting back and waiting to strike like I tried to do at conferences obviously won’t work. … I’ll need to get out fast and hang onto the lead pack.”
Rounding out the scoring team for the men were Therriault (29th, 26:50.60), and juniors Corey Bean (44th, 27:29.80) and Chris Harmon (52nd, 27:46.50).
“With only five runners that can mix it up with the top guys, there’s no safety net for those bad days that all runners have,” Therriault said. “A few of our top five had their worst performances of the year. We had no backup for them, and it hurt us.”
Corey Conner continued her tremendous freshman campaign as well, placing 11th overall in 18:04.50 and notching another first place finish among her Black Bear teammates. Conner was also the second fastest freshman in the conference.
“The course was very mentally tough,” Conner said. “You had to really push yourself to get through to the finish, because the last legs of the race were where the hills really kicked in and started to eat away at you.”
Conner was joined by fellow freshman Hilary Maxim (31st, 18:55.10), sophomore Chelsea Leeman (39th, 19:05.60), senior captain Stephanie Jette (40th, 19:14.80) and her sister, sophomore Allison Conner (43rd, 19:32.60) to round out the scoring team.
“Hopefully, after this season, we can take a small break to rest up and come back stronger for the indoor season.” said junior Jordan Daniel. “We have a lot of talent within the team and the group of new freshman have added greatly.”
The teams head to New York City this weekend for the NCAA Qualifier, which will be the final meet of the season if no Black Bears qualify for NCAA Nationals.
