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The University of Maine cross country team went into the Murray Keatinge Invitational confident they could put up fast times and set up for the regional and conference meets that are coming up in the next few weeks. Several Black Bears were able to put down personal best times as they shuffled for position against the College of the Holy Cross, Robert Morris University, the women of Boston College and four Canadian teams.
The Black Bears were able to earn a second place finish behind strong performances by second-place finisher Corey Conner and senior Jordan Daniel, who nabbed eighth place in a personal best time of 17:49.13. Conner attributed part of her personal record run of 17:15.23 to her familiarity with the course layout.
“We run this course so much that we know where the hard parts are, we know where the easy parts are, how much is left in the race, so home field advantage is really big here,” she said.
The overcast fall morning also kept runners on their toes, as rain threatened throughout.
“The weather was perfect, actually,” Conner said. “It wasn’t too windy; it was a little cool, so it was really good for the runners.”
Conner and Daniel got help from familiar scorers like juniors Vanessa Letourneau (18th, 18:18.27), Allie Conner (23rd, 18:29.88) and Cynthia Hunter (33rd, 18:46.51).
“After I finished, I realized I could have pushed it harder and probably ran 10 seconds faster but this is all new to me being in this shape,” Daniel said. “I keep thinking with every workout or race that this is the best I’ll get, but I’m glad that I’m improving and it feels great.”
UMaine’s 60 points were nowhere close to first place Boston College’s 23 points. A perfect score in cross country is 15 points.
The men’s team did not fare as well as they expected going in due in part to the fact that they were without sophomore standout Riley Masters for the second week in a row. Masters is dealing with a lingering knee issue.
“It’s hard to really tell exactly what’s going on,” Masters said. “I’ve had several people look at it and they have all gathered there is some inflammation down there making it very uncomfortable to run.”
“It is very frustrating not to be able to run and not knowing if I am going to finish the season or not,” Masters said.
The plan is for Masters to undergo X-rays and MRI testing sometime this week.
Senior Miles Bartlett led the men, finishing in eighth place in 25:47.70. He was followed by fellow senior and team captain Corey Bean, who took tenth place in 25:51.27, his fastest time ever by several seconds.
“I think I was bound to set a personal best this meet,” said Bean. “My old personal best is from last season, and I’ve progressed so much since then that it would’ve been a disappointment if I didn’t.”
Bartlett and Bean were followed by freshman Taylor Phillips and sophomores Dave Currier and Spencer McElwain, who finished in the 16th, 17th and 18th spots respectively. The men’s team finished third overall behind St. Francis Xavier University and Holy Cross.
The teams will head to Boston for the New England regional championships Saturday at noon.
