Women Take 19th At NCAA Regionals; Men Place 23rd

Friday, November 15

NCAA Northeastern Championships

Women Take 19th At NCAA Regionals; Men Place 23rd

11/15/2013 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country

RIVERDALE, NY – The University at Buffalo cross country teams finished off their 2013 season at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships held at Van Cortlandt Park in Riverdale, NY on Friday afternoon. The UB women took home a 19^th place finish out of 42 teams while the men finished in 23^rd place out of the same 39 teams.

In the women's 6k race, freshman Caroline Brown was UB's top finisher, as she placed 63^rd among 252 runners from 37 schools. Brown finished the 6k course in a career-best time of 21:42, an improvement of 22 seconds on her previous personal best mark. Joining Brown across the finish line for the Bulls were Meagan Hopkins in 92^nd place in 22:13, Gabby Leo in 100^th place in 22:21, Kaitlin McCadden in 129^th place in 22:38, Hilary Swartwood in 146^th place in 22:52, Chrissy Clarkin in 153^rd place in 22:54 and Corinne Birchard in 186^th place in 23:31. Five of the six runners improved on their times recorded at the MAC Championships from two weeks ago.

"Despite not having Kara Patrick (73^rd last year) this season, and having Chrissy Clarkin with a serious illness, the women competed very well," stated head coach Vicki Mitchell. "We when factor Patrick and Clarkin into the results, we're a much stronger team and a top 15^th team which was our goal at the start of the season."

In the men's 10k meet, the first time at the distance this season for the Bulls, freshman Alec Peinkofer was the top finisher, placing 105^th among the 255 entrants as he finished in 32:20. MAC individual champion, Zach Ahart, had a tough finish after starting out strong on Friday afternoon as he finished in 114^th place in 32:24. Rounding out UB's scorers were Pier Berkmans in 128^th place in 32:39, Barrett Kemp in 135^th place in 32:48, Cameron Bruce in 152^nd place in 33:10, Bobby Swick in 166^th place in 33:21 and Austin Coneys in 184^th place in 33:39.

"For the men, it was not the team or individual performance we had hoped for coming into the meet," said Mitchell. "But today's results don't erase the amazing season and accomplishments by both Zach Ahart and his teammates this season."

The UB women scored 528 points for their 19^th-place showing while Providence College won the women's team event with 44 points. Dartmouth College recorded a second place finish with 84 points and Syracuse came in third with 135 points. Abbey D'Agostino won her third straight individual title, finishing the course in 19:48, 11 seconds ahead of the second place finisher from Providence.

Syracuse University won the men's title with 57 points as they had two runners finish in the top-5 individually. Maksim Korolev of Harvard was the individual champion, finishing the course in 30:11.