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.

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.

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.

Amanda Deller won the Shot Put and finished second in the Discus.

With 75 points the women’s track and field team finished in seventh place in the 2011 America East Outdoor Championships, held at UMBC. For the size of the team they have, the women’s squad was fairly successful. Not being able to compete in every event, like the winner Albany or second-place Boston University could, cost the women’s team points but where they completed they scored points.

Amanda Deller shined with a gold and silver in the meet. Deller won the Shot Put with an ECAC-qualifying mark of 14.38 meters and then finished in second place in the Discus with a mark of 41.63 meters. Chrissy Robinson added points in the Shot Put, finishing in fourth place with a mark of 12.65 meters.

UMBC has four third-place finished in the meet. Sara Parkinson broke a school record in the 1,500-meter run with an ECAC-qualifying time of 4:28.57. She then ran in the 5,000-meter run and finished in sixth place with a time of 17:34.97.

Also finishing third were Imani Colbert in the 100-meter hurdles in an ECAC-qualifying time of 14.22 and Britney Foreman in the 100-meter dash in 12.18. Foreman was also the third leg of the 4×400-meter relay team that took third place. Lauren Leclercq led the team and was fallowed by Deborah Adelola while Kirsten Jones wrapped it up as they finished in an ECAC-qualifying time of 3:48.40.

Before that relay Foreman was apart of the 4×100-meter relay team that finished in fourth place with a time of 48.19. Jamila Hayes led the relay while Ashley Ajayi and Colbert ran their laps before Foreman closed it out.

Jones and Adelola both took part in the 400-meter dash individually, finishing only 0.03 seconds apart from each other. Jones took fourth in 56.72 and Adelola took fifth in 56.75.

Ajayi raced in the 400-meter hurdles individually, taking seventh place in the seventh with a time of 1:06.17.

Chowan Brightful showed a lot of promise in the Heptathlon. She is only a sophomore and has a lot of time to improve on the two events that really kill her score, but thought she finished in the top five in four of the seven events. She won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.64, came in second in the High Jump with a height of 1.65 meters, finished in fourth in both the Shot Put and Long jump, and came in sixth in the 200-meter dash. But a 15th place performance in the Javelin and 16th place performance in the 800-meter run bumped her from contending for a gold to finishing in sixth place with 4,211 total points.

The last point UMBC got was from the 4×800-meter relay team that finished in eighth place with a time of 9:51.58. Cortney Crouse led the relay off and was followed by Megan Arnold, Megan Irminger, and Cody Mezebish.

Albany won the women’s title with 174 points while Boston University finished in second with 151 points and New Hampshire took third with 118 points.

Fellow long-distance runner Megan Arnold also won her event, finishing the 5,000-meter run in 18:43.59, one spot ahead of Keri Wilson, who finished in second place in 18:56.42.

Imani Colbert also joined Parkinson and Arnold in the winners circle with a first-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.72 to help lead the women’s outdoor track and field team to a second place finish in the 10-team Maryland Invitational with 132 points.

Sophomore thrower Amanda Deller finished in second place in the shot put with a ECAC-qualifying mark of 14.11 meters and also finished in third place in the discus with a mark of 37.65 meters.

Deborah Adelola finished in third place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.23, one spot ahead of Kirsten Jones while Lauren Leclerq finished the event in seventh place.

Sophomore hurdler Ashley Ajayi finished in third place in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:07.24 while Jasmine Batchelor finished in third place in the high jump with a height of 1.52 meters.

Senior sprinter Britney Foreman took fifth place in the 100-meter dash in 12.94 and Fallon-Rovel Jones, who also finished in fourth place in the 100-meter hurdles, took seventh place in the event with a time of 13.14.

Parkinson finished in 12th place in the event with a time of 17:04.22, which topped Karin Wagner’s time set in 1985.

Sophomore thrower Amanda Deller led the Retrievers with 10 points as they scored 16 points in their 20th place finish. Deller won the Shot Put with a heave of 14.22 meters while Imani Colbert finished with four points in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.56.

Kiki Malomo-Paris finished with two points in the long jump with a mark of 5.36 meters.

The men’s team finished the meet in 14th place with 29 points.

Trae Proctor scored five points in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.78 while Keith Brown finished right behind him in 14.99 for four points while Dominic Devaud was the third-consecutive Retriever to cross the finish line, finishing in 15.18.

Aaron Brooks finished in fourth place in the men’s discus for six points with 47.18 meters and finished in tenth in the shot put for one point with a distance of 14.25 meters.

The 1,600-spring medley team of Keith Brown, Kyle Baker, Arjun Pradeep, and Joshua Hewitson finished with six points with a time of 3:31.80.

Shioma Obemeata finished in seventh place for three points in the triple jump with a distance of 13.95 meters while Vinny DiSalvo finished in tenth place to add one point to the team’s score in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:28.15.

Senior Sara Parkinson set a record in the 3,000-meter run. (Courtesy UMBC Athletic Communications)

Sophomore Amanda Deller won gold in the shot put at the 2011 America East Indoor Track and Field Championships, leading the Retrievers to a sixth place finish with 64.50 points. UAlbany dominated the championship meet with 206.50 points. Boston U came in second place with 119 points. Deller hit a mark of 14.33-meters, enough to qualify for the ECAC postseason meet, just one year after winning bronze as a freshman.

Junior Chrissy Robinson placed fourth in the event with a mark of 12.85 meters.

Senior long distance runner Sara Parkinson set a school record in the 3,000-meter run, which she finished in fifth place in, with an ECAC-qualifying time of 9:40.12.

Kirsten Jones was the only Retriever of than Deller to medal during the second day of the meet. Jones finished in third place in the 400-meter dash with an ECAC-qualifying time of 56.95, good for bronze. She also finished in seventh place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.31 and led off the 4×400-meter relay team that also included Deborah Adelola, Lauren Leclerq, and Ashley Ajayi, which finished in seventh place in 3:56.77.

Adelola also ran individually, finishing in sixth place in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:16.81.

Junior Imani Colbert finished in fourth place in the 60-meter run with a time of 8.81 while Chowan Brightful finished in fourth place in the high jump with a mark of 1.66 meters.

Senior Cortney Crouse finished in seventh place in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:08.01.

Featured Image Courtesy UMBC Athletic Communications