The Retrievers were led by sophomore Brandan McGee, who finished in 27th place with a time of 25:25.48. Junior T.J. Cowing finished not even three seconds later in 30th place with a time of 25:28.23.

Also scoring for the men’s squad was Sam Boimov (25:58.09 – 45th), Nic Escobar (26:05.63 – 48th), Tom Eldridge (26:18.29 – 55th), Jake Albino (26:19.23 – 57th), and Tim Jones (26:27.56 – 62nd).

While their times did not figure into the scoring Chris Snyder (26:34.57 – 66th), James Beachem (27:12.57 – 76th), and Eric Schuler (27:25.69 – 79th) all ran in the 8K.

As has been an issue all season, the rest of the year is very young and failed to finish in the top 50 of the meet but their potential continued to shine through as the other six runners in the need, all either freshmen or sophomores, finished within one minute of each other.

Cody Mezebish was the next best Retrievers finishing in 53rd place in 19:18.51. Alyse Gibson was the next Retriever to cross the finish line with a 57th place finish in 19:22.81. Julie Gessler and Katrin Bauman also broke 20 minutes as they finished in 64th and 65th place respectively with times of 19:36.98 and 19:41.79, respectively.

Kirsten McGovern and Mary Katherine Kulp rounded things out for UMBC. McGovern finished in 70th place with a time of 20:00.79 and Kulp finished in 72nd in 20:10.62.

T.J. Cowing was the first Retriever to cross te finish line for the first time since his freshman year.

For the first time in two years the men’s cross country had somebody other than Brandan McGee or Sam Boimov finished in the top two for the squad. Junior T.J. Cowing was the Retrievers top finisher at the Princeton Invitational with a time of 25:39, good for 41st place overall as the team finished 10th with an average time of 26:20 and total time of 2:11:37.

McGee and Boimov were right there behind Cowing, though, as they all finished within 30 seconds of each other. McGee finished in 44th place with a time of 25:43 while Boimov finished in 61st with a time of 26:08.

Nic Esbober and Chris Snyder rounded out the scoring five as they crossed the finished line just milliseconds apart with time of 26:45, finishing 78th and 79th, respectively.

The women’s team didn’t have any parody at the top of their results, though, as senior Keri Wilson continued her streak the first Retriever to cross the finished line. Out of 97 runners Wilson placed 18th in the 6K with a time of 23:28.

The youth proved to be the team’s downfall again as the team finished 10th out of 11 teams but they young runners on the team continued to show great improvement and all finished within one minute of each other.

Alyse Gibson was the second Retriever to finish the race with a time of 24:35 while Kirsten McGovern placed 50th overall in 24:53. Julie Gessler placed 53rd with a time of 24:59 while Cody Mezebish rounded out the scoring five with a 55th place finish in 25:05. while they did not count toward the team’s score, Katrin Baumann crossed on spot spot behind Mezebish only four seconds later while Mary Katherine Kulp finished in 59th with a time of 25:21.

Keri Wilson has developed into one of the conference's top runners this season. (Photo Courtesy UMBC Athletic Communications)

Out of 44 teams at the Paul Short Invitational hosted at Lehigh University the women’s cross country team finished in 23rd place with 619 points and a total time of 2:00:03 at the 6K.

Senior Keri Wilson finished in 27th place among a field of 386 with a time of 22:53. Wilson continues to improve her senior season. Last year she was a clear No. 2 behind Sara Parkinson but this season he stepped up and has shaved major minutes off her times to become one of the top long-distance runners in the conference.

After Wilson, though, the team is incredibly young with two sophomores and three freshmen in the race with her. Freshman Mary Katherine Kulp has been the top runner behind Wilson so far this year and was the second Retriever to finish at this race with a time of 24:06, good for 123rd place.

Fellow freshman Julie Gessler finished a few seconds behind her in 139th place with a time of 24:13 while sophomores Cody Mezebish and Kirsten McGovern rounded out the scoring five. Mezebish finished in 141st place with a time of 24:14 while McGovern finished in 189th place in 24:39.

Freshman Alyse Gibson finished in 210th place in 24:50.

Despite all the youth the team has shown great promise as a group of primarily freshmen and sophomores finished in the top half of a meet stocked with some of the nation’s teams – UMBC finished one spot behind cross country power American – and no runner finished in the bottom third of the race.

Brandan McGee was UMBC's top finisher for the second time in three meets this year. (Photo Courtesy UMBC Athletic Communications)

At the Paul Short Invitational hosted a Lehigh University the UMBC men’s cross country team finished in 40th place against some of the nation’s best teams with 1,085 points and an average time of 26:29.

Sophomore Brandan McGee led Retrievers with a time of 26:17 at the 6K, finishing in 197th place among the 402 competitors. Senior Sam Boimov continued his streak of top-two Retriever finishes with McGee in 210th place with a time of 26:24.

Both McGee and Boimov joined the team last season and have finished 1-2 in the majority of the team’s meets. McGee finished first at the Mount St. Mary’s Dual 5K this season while Boimov finished first at the Navy Invitational two weeks ago.

Sophomore Nic Escobar finished the race 10 seconds behind Boimov in 221th place while T.J. Cowing crossed only one second and two spots behind him.

Freshman Eric Schuler rounded out the scoring five with a 234th place finish just three seconds after Cowing at 26:38.

Jackson Reams, a freshman, finished in 278th place in 27:20 and sophomore Tommy Eldridge finished in 293rd place in 27:39.

Keri Wilson has been the top finisher for the women's cross country team in both of their races so far this season. (Photo: UMBC Athletic Communications)

The UMBC men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Navy Invitational on Saturday and finished in ninth and tenth, respectively.

The men’s team finished in ninth place with a total time of 2:07:48.72 and leading the way was Sam Boimov, who was the 33rd runner to cross the finish line in 25:15.31.

Brandon McGee and Eric Schuler finished in 40th and 49th place respectively. Chris Snyder and T.J. Cowing rounded out the scoring five.

Senior Keri Wilson finished in 33rd place as well to lead the women’s team to a 10th place finished with a total time of 2:02:00.76. Wilson finished the race with a time of 23:36.81. Mary Katherine Kulp finished in 68th place but not too long later, with a time of 24:19.98.

Julie Gessler, Alyse Gibson, and Kristen McGovern rounded out the scoring five for the women’s side.

Brandan McGee's time of 15:33.07 was the fastest by a Retriever in a 5K ever. (Photo: UMBC Athletic Communications)

Last season, as a freshman, Brandan McGee emerged as the men’s cross country team’s top runner and he appears to be set to pace them again.

In the team’s season opening meet at the Mount St. Mary’s Dual 5K’s, McGee was the first Retriever to cross the finish line, finishing the race in fourth place with a time of 15:33.07, a nearly a 43 second improvement on his time last season. It was the fastest time by a Retriever in a 5K since at least 1999.

Behind McGee’s effort the men’s cross country team finished second in the Dual meet with a 4-1-1 record, topping George Washington (15-50), Mount St. Mary’s (21-39), St. Bonaventure (15-50), and Navy (19-41), while tying Maryland (28-28).

Senior Sam Boimov was the second Retriever to cross the finish line, placing seventh in 15:37.77 while junior T.J. Cowing finished tenth overall with a time of 15:40.82.

Senior Chris Snyder finished only a few seconds outside of the top-10 with a time of 15:44.88 for 15th place while Eric Schuler and Jake Albino rounded out the top 20 of the 84-man race with times of 15:47.58 and 15:49.39, respectively.

Keri Wilson cut nearly a minute from her time at Mount St. Mary's last year. (Photo: UMBC Athletic Communications)

The Sara Parkinson era is over at UMBC. For three years she dominated competition in long-distant races and paced the women’s cross country team to heights they’ve never seem before but senior Keri Wilson proved at the Mount St. Mary’s 5K dual that she has the ability to soften the blow of her loss.

Last season Wilson finished the 5K race in 19:52.69. This season she cut nearly a minute off her time for a seventh place finish in 18:55.55.

There was a pretty big drop off after Wilson as UMBC’s next best finisher was 20th overall, but other than Wilson, everybody on the team is either a freshman or sophomore so there is plenty of reason to expect significant improvement throughout the season.

Julie Gessler was the 20th-place finisher. The freshman finished her first collegiate cross country races with a time of 19:39.37 while fellow freshman Mary Katherine Kulp finished three spots behind her with a time of 19:47.23.

Sophomore Cody Mezebish placed 32nd overall in 20:12.80 while freshman Alyse Gibson was the fifth Retriever to finish the race, placing 33rd in 20:15.16.

Kirsten McGovern placed 39th in the 61 person 5K with a time of 20:27.24, a time that was nearly a two minute improvement over last year.

UMBC beat George Washington (21-36), Mount St. Mary’s (26-30), and St. Bonaventure (24-33) for a 3-3 record, which placed them fourth.

Also on the women’s side Amanda Deller finished in eighth place in the shot put with a mark of 14.13 meters to give the women’s team their lone point in the competition.

Imani Colbert qualified for the semi-finals and finished in 13th place in the 100-meter women’s hurdles in a time of 14.24.

The men’s team finished in 24th place with 14 points and was lead by the duo of Keith Onto and Dominic Devaud, who finished in second and third in the decathlon, respectively. Onto finished the event with 6,919 points and Devaud finished with 6,679 points.

Michael Christmas broke a school record in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:50.67, enough for 11th place in the event.

Trae Proctor won a gold in the winter and backed it up with another gold in the spring.

On his home track sophomore Trae Proctor represented UMBC in a big way with a victory in the 110-meter hurdles to lead the men’s track and field team to a fourth-place finish in the 2011 America East Outdoor Track and Field Championships with 97.50 points.

Proctor finished in first place in the 110-meter hurdles with an IC4A-qualifying time of 14.46, blowing away the competition as his closest competitor was his own teammate, Keith Brown, who finished in second place in and IC4A-qualifying time of 14.70.

While Proctor was the lone Retriever to win his event, three Retrievers joined Brown as second-place finishers.

Senior Michael Christmas finished in second-place in the 800-meter run in an IC4A qualifying time of 1:51.68, two spots ahead of fourth-place finisher Andrew Smith, who finished in 1:52.64. Meanwhile, Mo Drammeh finished in second place in the high jump with a height of 2.00 meters and Dominic Devaud finished in second place in the Decathlon with an IC4A-qualifying score of 6,664 points.

Devaud won three legs of the Decathlon, taking the 400-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, and the Pole Vault. He dominated the Pole Vault, reaching a height of 4.70 meters, 0.40 meters ahead of his closest competitor. With finished the 400-meter dash in 50.93 and the 110-meter hurdles in 14.98. Going into the final event, the 1,500-meter run, Devaud was three points behind Chris Lemieux but finished behind him in the event and had to take second place in the Decathlon.

The multi favorite, Keith Onto, was in great shape to compete for gold through seven events, finishing in second of third in five of the events, but he failed to reach and height in the Pole Vault was pretty much eliminated from any sort of medal contention. The, after finishing in last place in the Javelin the coaches decided to not even run him in the 1,500-meter run as Onto did not finish the event.

Devaud also finished in fifth place in the 110-meter hurdles as an individual event with a time of 14.91.

UMBC also had three third-place finishes at the meet. Martin Nevarez finished in third place in the Pole Vault with an IC4A-qualifying mark of 4.80 meters while Samuel Wilson added points for UMBC with a sixth-place finish with a height of 4.50 meters.

Aaron Brooks finished in third place in the Shot Put and Discus with marks of 15.38 meters and 48.59 meters, respectfully. His Discus mark was good enough to qualify him for the IC4A Championships. Cameron McDearmon added one point in the shot put with an eighth place finish with a mark of 14.41 meters.

The 4×800-meter relay team of Christmas, Roy Jones, Jake Albino, and Andrew Smith finished in third place with an IC4A-qualifying time of 7:38.89.

UMBC’s two other relay teams, the 4×100 and 4×400, added points to UMBC’s total after both squads finished in sixth place. Kyle Baker, Pat Balderson, Tyler Cuomo, and Oladosu Teyibo combined for a time of 43.38 in the 4×100-meter relay race while Joshua Hewitson, Arjun Pradeep, Brown, and Baker finished the 4×400-meter relay team finished in 3:21.29.

Aboshioma Obemeata finished in fifth place in the Triple Jump with a mark of 14.39 meters and the final points came from Brandan McGee in the 5,000-meter run as he tied for eighth place with a time of 14:52.91.

The winner of the meet was Albany, which has 204 points. The second place team was Binghamton, which finished with 171 points while Boston University was the last team ahead of UMBC with 134 points.