Mens Cross Country Outlook: Two years ago, we had a great year, and even though we brought back

almost everyone from that team, we underachieved last year. I think some of the returners felt that it was a given that they were going to get back to that same level, and life doesnt work out that way, revealed Coach Gittermann. This year everyone seems to be on the same page, and with some of the best and deepest leadership I have had since I been here, I believe that this will be the group that sets the tone for the program from this point forward. The mens cross country team returns eight runners who have competed at the America East Conference Championships, led by last years Co-Most Valuable Runners, senior Todd Cowing and junior Brandan McGee. Cowing is the lone senior on both the mens and womens rosters, and has competed at the Conference Championships in each of his first three seasons, making a big jump from years prior to last year. In addition to a strong performance at the Conference meet, he continued his junior campaign by setting some of the fastest track times in UMBCs history, including the second fastest 10,000 meter run in the spring. McGee, took it to the next level in the spring, winning the Conference championship in the steeple (breaking the school record) and finishing fourth in the 5,000 meters. With the progress they both made last year in the second half of the year, my expectation and their goal, is to break into the Conference top ten at this years meet, said Gittermann. To make an improvement over last year, we are going to need a lot of the returners to step up to the plate, and make an impact, said Gittermann. Sophomore Eric Schuler posted the third fastest returning time in cross country last fall while junior Tommy Eldridge built upon a strong fall campaign to put up the fifth fastest 10,000 meters in school history during outdoor track. Mid-distance runner Jake Albino dropped minutes from his best 8,000 meter times from the year before and even half that improvement this year would make an impact at the Conference level. Juniors Andrew Smith and Vinny DiSalvo, who were both on the Conference team as freshmen, should rebound this year with a great improvement over the past two years. Finally sophomore James Beacham should make the big jump from year one to year two after representing the team last year in Albany. The mens team brings in eight freshmen to build up the depth of the team and fill some holes from the year before. We have a couple kids on the roster who should be top five or top seven runners for us from the first meet and only progress from there, said Gittermann. Even though a couple of them are more mid-distance focused, all have advanced to the state cross country meet individually and performed well at those meets. Freshmen year is usually a rough year for all male newcomers with the move up from 5,000 meter courses at the high school level to the 8,000 meter and 10,000 meter courses at the collegiate level. Coach Gittermann breaks down their chances: This year the Conference is wide open, and when it gets like this, it doesnt usually matter how much talent you have, but how good of a race you have as team that determines your place. We definitively need to have our top two guys in the top ten or contending for it, otherwise you can not hope for better than fifth. After them, we need four or five of our guys to bridge that gap and get into the lower twenty five minutes range. In order to do that we need returners to step up and a couple freshmen to make an immediate impact.

2012 SCHEDULE st Saturday, September 1 Richmond Spider Open Pole Green Park Saturday, September 15 Navy Invitational Naval Academy Golf Course Friday, September 21 Towson Invitational Oregon Ridge Park
st th

Saturday, September 29 George Mason Invitational Oatlands Plantations Saturday, October 13 Blue and Gold Invite Frightlands, DE
th

th

Saturday, October 27 America East Conference University of New Hampshire Saturday, November 10 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Penn State Golf Course
th

th

Follow UMBC XC/TF on our social media sites for meet previews, pictures, videos, and live results: www.facebook.com/umbcxctf www.umbcxctf.wordpress.com @umbcxctf

Womens Cross Country Outlook: While the womens team is much larger than previous years, there are only seven seasons of collegiate cross country experience on the roster. The top returner for the Retrievers is junior Cody Mezebish who was the second woman across the line after departed senior Keri Wilson. Cody really exceeded our expectations as an 800 meter runner who showed the range to make an impact during cross country, said Gittermann. Since she has less cross country experience than our incoming freshmen, we can expect to still see large jumps in improvement. Fellow junior Kirsten McGovern should make an big impact for the Retrievers as well after a stellar indoor and outdoor campaign. Kirsten really stepped it up during the track season and with that momentum should make for around a two minute improvement from last years conference meet to this years conference meet. McGovern set UMBC Top Ten All Time Performances in the indoor 3,000 meters and outdoor 10,000 meters, including an eighth place finish in the latter at the Conference meet despite falling. The remaining returners are three sophomores who made contributions throughout last year. Our three sophomore women have shown similar abilities in cross country, and with another year of training under their belt, we should see a lot of improvement and more consistency from the group, said Gittermann. Alyse Gibson was the third Retriever across the line at last years cross country meet. Julie Gessler was right behind her and recorded the eighth fastest 10,000 meters in school history during the outdoor season. Mary Katherine Kulp made a strong contribution during the indoor season, recording top ten all time performances in the 800 meter and 1,000 meter runs. The bulk of the team is represented in the ten new additions to the cross country program. Of those ten girls, about half are what you would refer to as traditional cross country runners, while the other half are closer to 800 meter runners. But with no real change in distance from high school, unlike the men, those 800 meter runners can still make a solid contribution, said Gittermann. Overall there are nine freshmen in this group, while sophomore Sarah Daly, who is a top ten all time 800 meter performer, joins the cross country team. Coach Gittermann on their chances: We really have no standout number one runner, so the success of this team is based on getting a bunch of women across the line in a tight group. With another year of experience we can expect them all to improve greatly, and as the year progresses, we will be looking to see the gap between number one and number ten diminish. If we can get that gap down to under thirty seconds, that is how we are going to make a big jump.

Rob Magin 5K Dawg Chase

Saturday October 13th 8 AM Registration Opens 9 AM Race Begins Stadium Lot
The 4th annual trot around the Loop, named for the late mens track alumnus Rob Magin 92, kicks off Saturdays Homecoming festivities. Enjoy the early morning air and get a closer look at different parts of the UMBC campus. Free t-shirt to all paid entrants. A fun walk/run is scheduled prior to the start of the 5K. Register on active.com: http://www.active.com/10k-race/catonsville-md/rob-magin-5k-dawg-chase-umbc-2012

The Class of 2016: UMBCs Head Track and Field coach David Bobb announced the addition of fifteen women and ten men to UMBCs Cross Country and Track and Field program. We are looking to take a huge step towards winning a Conference Championship, and we feel we added a group of young men and women who have the talent to come in and score immediate points in the Conference, said Coach Bobb. For the sprints, local standout, DNique Phillip from North East High School looks to make an immediate impact for the women in every sprint event having just won the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 400 meter dashes at the Maryland State Meet as a senior. DNique will be a great compliment to last years recruiting class, adding a lot range which gives us the versatility to maximize points at the Conference Championships, said Bobb. The mens side added Niko Coaxum from Largo High School. Niko, should be able to step in the 400 meters and make the finals right away. Coaxum ran 48.91 to finish second at the Maryland State Meet in the 400 meters. The mid-distance and distance events added nine women and seven men to their ranks, and represents one of the largest recruiting classes on the womens side in school history. We were looking to build up our womens program quickly, and we tried to fill as many needs as we could. For the men we were looking to fill a couple holes in what was already a strong returning roster. Overall, Im excited to get working with these young men and women as I feel as there is a lot of potential in each athlete that could yield big rewards right away, said Head Cross Country coach Matt Gittermann. The sheer numbers on the womens side will give us immediate depth and scoring potential, especially in the 800 meters and 10,000 meters. We now will have the talent to put out a 4x800 meter relay team that could contend for the Conference Championship every year for the career of this recruiting class. The mens class is headed by Andrew Kereszetes (Port Jefferson High School, NY) and Hassan Omar (Gov. Thomas Johnson High School). Kereszetes comes to UMBC with personal best times of 1:52.0 in the 800 meters and 2:29.7 in the 1,000 meters, both of which would place him in scoring contention. Omar recorded the fastest time in the 3200 meters in the state of Maryland last year en route to a state title in that event. The women should be led by freshmen Angel Bucci (Upper Darby High School, PA), whose best 3200m time of 11:17 suggests an immediate impact for the cross country team. The field events added important pieces to the puzzle across a spectrum of events. The throwing events will show the addition of Vincent Rentzsch (Oranienburg, Germany), transfer Yao Adantor (University of Maryland), and Jennifer Nelson (Plainfield High School, CT), all of whom should be able to come in and score right away. Assistant Track and Field coach Pete Koumlelis revealed that, Vincent is a National level javelin athlete from the moment he arrives, though he has the talent to score in a multitude of events ranging from the triple jump to the heptathlon indoors. Yao and Jennifer come to the program with personal best marks in the Shot Put that could give us major points at the Conference Championships. The addition of transfer Alisha Beeman from Hartford, while not able to compete immediately due to NCAA transfer rules, should pay off big for the Retrievers as she was the Conference runner-up in the high jump.

Womens Recruiting Class: Name Class Alisha Beeman Jr. Vernetta Biggs Jr. Angel Bucci Fr. Holly Cook Fr. Caitlyn Davis Fr. Nicole Dawson Fr. Lynne Deckel Fr. Nneoma Edokobi Fr. Essence Fredericks Fr. Margaret Glassman Fr. Deryca Johnson Fr. Jennifer Nelson Fr. Angelina Oputa Fr. DNique Phillip Fr. Harmony Roche Fr.

High School/College University of Hartford Delaware State Univ. Upper Darby HS John Carroll HS River Hill HS Hammond HS North Penn HS Richard Montgomery HS Carver HS Loch Raven HS Glastonbury HS Plainfield HS Elizabeth Seton HS North East HS Severn School

Hometown Stratford, CT Accokeek, MD Upper Darby, PA Bel Air, MD Columbia, MD Jessup, MD Lansdale, PA Rockville, MD Baltimore, MD Baltimore, MD Glastonbury, CT Plainfield, CT Bowie, MD Elkton, MD Millersville, MD

Event Jumps/Javelin Hurdles/Jumps Distance Distance Pole Vault Distance Mid-Distance Throws Mid-Distance Mid-Distance Mid-Distance Throws Mid-Distance Sprints Distance

Mens Recruiting Class: Name Class Yao Adantor Jr. Pat Anske Fr. Niko Coaxum Fr. Austin Hayslett Fr. Zach Hopkins Fr. Nick Johnson Fr. Andrew Kereszetes Fr. Hassan Omar Fr. Ben Pickett Fr. Vincent Rentzsch Fr. Redatu Semeon Fr.

High School/College University of Maryland Century HS Largo HS Urbana HS Winters Mill HS Sherwood HS Port Jefferson HS Gov. Thomas Johnson HS John Carroll HS Thomas Stone HS

Hometown Germantown, MD Sykesville, MD Suitland, MD Mount Airy, MD Westminster, MD Olney, MD Port Jefferson, NY Frederick, MD Abdingdon, MD Oranienburg, GER Bowie, MD

Event Throws Distance Sprints Distance Distance Mid-Distance Mid-Distance Distance Distance Javelin Distance