BIDDEFORD, Maine – Top-20 finishes from Abigail Keim (Williston, Vt.), Kiera Malone (Woburn, Mass.), and Laura Pomeroy (Windham, N.H.) propelled the Endicott women's cross country team to a third place showing at the University of New England Invitational (UNE) on Saturday afternoon.
UNE claimed top honors with a team score of 19 points, while Worcester State University (87) earned runner-up honors ahead of Endicott (100). Last week, the Nor'easters recorded a perfect score of 15 points at their own UNE Early-Season Invitational against Maine Farmington and St. Joseph's College.
Meanwhile, Keim led Endicott with an 11th place finish on the 5-kilometer course in 21:08, while Malone came in 13th overall (21:12), and Pomeroy was 19th overall (21:28). Maeve Kelly (Washingtonville, N.Y.) was the Gulls' No. 4 runner with a time of 22:38, and Kelly O'Neill (Cumberland, R.I.) came through at 22:49 (41st).
TOP QUOTE
"The women did a great job executing the race strategy. UNE has a tough course but the ladies handled it well and are looking forward to the next few weeks of training before Bowdoin," said Endicott women's cross country head coach Spencer Lange. "Abby [Keim], Kiera [Malone], and Laura [Pomeroy] managed to find good positioning at the start of the race and moved their way up. Laura has done a great job so far running up there with Abby and Kiera. Both Maeve [Kelly] and Kelly [O'Neill] worked together through the latter part of the race to fight for their spots. They are motivated and stepping up as leaders, which we believe is more important at this point during the season."
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Endicott has finished inside the top-3 at the UNE Invitational for the last three seasons.
- Keim led the Gulls for the ninth time in her career with today's 11th place finish.
- Keim also was 11-seconds faster than her time last year at the UNE Invitational
- The Gulls' top-3 harriers only had a gap of 20-seconds.
- Malone improved by seven seconds in comparison to her performance a season ago.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott enjoys a week off to train before taking part in the Bowdoin Invitational on Saturday, September 24 at 12 p.m. For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
