America East Conference Championship

America East Conference Championship

University of Albany

Saturday, October 29th

Meet Coverage: Click Here

This weekend the Men’s and Women’s UMBC Cross Country teams head to the campus of the University of Albany for the 2011 America East Conference Championships. “There is a bit of uncertainty and excitement for this weekend because we trained hard through the first two meets, and didn’t get good weather the past two outings, so I believe we have had to wait until this point to get the breakout performances that we see indications of in practice,” revealed Head Coach Matt Gittermann. This is Gittermann’s fourth Conference Championships, with his men finishing fifth, eighth, and fifth the past three years and his women finishing in the eighth position for the same time period. The women start off the festivities at 10:30 AM on Saturday, followed by the men at 11:30 AM.

Women’s Preview:

Keri Wilson - Sr.

Through every meet thus far, senior Keri Wilson has filled the role of number one runner. “I am really proud of Keri for taking on this role and not shrinking from it. I think its a role she has embraced and I have never seen her racing this well or this confident going into a meet,” said Gittermann. Since setting a cross country personal best time in the first race of the year, she has been leading all the women through the muck, mire, and wind. In her last opportunity out in the Conference Championships, Gittermann expects big things, “the way things have been going training wise, I think we are going to see a massive personal best time for five kilometers, not only on grass, but including the track as well.”

“However, if we are really going to make a difference this year, then that strength has to come from the remaining girls,” said Gittermann. The next six girls across the line has been a shuffling of sophomores Kirsten McGovern, Cody Mezebish and freshmen Alyse Gibson, Mary Katherine Kulp, Katrin Baumann, and Julie Gessler. “Every single practice we have been working on having them run workouts in very close proximity, if they can get that to come together during a meet, we can put all six of them across the line in mere seconds. And the way they have been running I think we are going to see a massive drop in time for all of them.” So far this year Gessler, Kulp and Gibson have all represented UMBC as the second runner across the line with McGovern and Mezebish being only seconds from having the honor. Additionally, Baumann has quickly bridged the gap between herself and the front runners after a late start to the season. “There’s the potential here for something special, a team performance from runners one through seven that UMBC hasn’t seen in years.”

Men’s Preview:

Todd Cowing - Jr.

The past three races have brought three different number one runners in Todd Cowing, Sam Boimov, and Brandan McGee. “I think in our attempt to go full in for the Conference meet, we’ve experienced some collateral damage in the meets leading up to this one, in that we were a bit tired for competition. However, with everyone beginning to taper and get their fresh legs back, we should right the ship at the exact time we had intended,” said Gittermann. All three of these runners have shown the ability to finish top fifteen at the conference meet, if not top ten, a feat that has not happened on the Men’s side since 2008.

A revolving supporting cast will give UMBC the depth that could put it over top its competitors. The most consistent of which have been senior Chris Snyder, sophomore Nic Escobar, and freshman Eric Schuler. “This is Snyder’s fourth Championship so he knows the drill, Nic was a top seven kid for us last year as a freshman, and Eric has been as high as our number three so it definitely gives us some leeway to work with,” said Gittermann. Joining the group will be sophomores Tommy Eldridge, who set a personal best time last weekend at the Princeton Invite, Vinny DiSalvo, a Regional participant last year, and Jake Albino who has dropped minutes from his cross country times from his freshmen year. The team is rounded out by surging freshman James Beacham who came out of no where to claim the last varsity spot and has been storming through workouts all week.