DOVER, Delaware — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore saw the women's cross country team finish second overall at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday (Oct. 25) behind a second-place individual performance by freshman Aurelia Jepkorir (Eldoret, Kenya), while the men finished third as a team.

"I'm pleased with the performance," head coach Damion Drummond said. "There are no words to say 'I wish we did or talk about what we didn't do.' I think the results spoke for what we managed to do this season. We set out that we were going to have a successful season and we did just that. Along the way, we saw the opportunity to win on the women's side and they had that on their mind that it was a possibility."

Jepkorir broke 18 minutes for the first time finishing the 5K race in 17:58.82, just 14 seconds behind the race winner — Martha Bissah of Norfolk State — a senior who won the event for the third straight time.

"That's big-time huge," Drummond said. "She is one of those athletes who is just a natural leader in her own sense. She is not going to be vocal and say 'let's go, we can do it', but she leads with her actions. When she commits and you see the commitment you are just going to follow and you are going to believe. I think she did that and her teammates saw and they tried to cover her. They PR'ed and they ran outside their comfort zone.

"That's the reason with the success we had that I am excited for the future."

Junior Asshanni Robb (Carson, Iowa) finished 13^th with a time of 19:40.08, while Nikiya Wooten (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was 15^th (19:51.15). Senior Amirah Jones (Suffolk, Virginia) finished 17^th with a time of 20:17.15.

All except one runner for the Hawks women posted a personal record in the race including: Fancy Kipyego (Kiptagap, Kenya) 21:01.54, 30^th; Naomi English (Kensington, Maryland) 21:52.35, 32^nd and Jessica Roney (Windsor Mill, Maryland), 21:56.85, 33^rd.

Senior John Akakeya (Staten Island, New York) was the top men's finisher for The Shore posting a time of 21:51.78 in 11^th place. Freshman Nahom Ftwi (Germantown, Maryland) finished 13^th (26:57.12) and both earned All-MEAC honors.

"On the men's side it was awesome to really see the transitions in the race," Drummond said. "With a half mile to go Nahom was actually in front of John. I just happened to be at that mark when I felt like they kind of gave up. I yelled at John 'hey John lets go' and he just snapped into it. They ran like they did all year long, but the pace was a lot faster."

Freshman Edwin Kipruto (Iten, Kenya) was the leader for the Hawks for much of the race and finished 16^th (27:10.56) in the 8K race.

"I'm very proud," Drummond said. "We are losing one senior on each side. On the men's side I have to do a lot of work to get some guys in, but on the women's side losing one senior is pretty good. We just have to find someone to step in to replace Amirah and I think we can stay in the hunt."

Next up for the Hawks is the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals, Nov. 15 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and IC4A/ECAC Championships, Nov. 23.