PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Cross Country teams had some mixed results in the only home meet of the season with the men putting up a fourth place finish out of seven teams and the women finishing sixth.
Sophomore
Dominique Spann (Coral Springs, Florida) had the top finish of the day for either squad coming in 12
th in the Eastern Shore XC Invite 5K race (21:26.00) — a PR in her short career.
Laura Menendez (Pilona, Asturias, Spain) finished 15
th with a (21:35.9).
"We improved on the women's side somewhat as far as team positioning compared to the first meet," Drummond said. "Time wise, we are still way off the mark of where we could be at this time of year. I'm not using that crutch of not competing and I'm holding strong that is not a reason for where we are right now, but the results are what they are. They did improve in the areas that I asked them to, which was to be a little more tactful up front and everyone did that the first half of the race so at least I know that we are going where we need to be."
Senior
Asshanni Robb (Carson, Iowa) finished 26
th with a time of 22:58.30,
Ragina Whyte (Brooklyn, New York) turned in a PR of 24:59.10 (30
th) and senior
Naomi English (Kensington, Maryland) was 32
nd (25:26.70).
"There were a lot of season bests and a lot of first timer's out there today," Drummond said. "That is good stuff to celebrate in spite of the overall results."
On the men's side,
Shawn Smith (St. Catherine, Jamaica) was 15
th leading a trio of Eastern Shore runners across the finish line with a 28:37.90. Senior
Edwin Kipruto (Iten, Kenya) was 16
th with a time of 28:47.70. Junior
Nahom Ftwi (Germantown, Maryland) was next in 17
th (29.13.70) in his first action of the season due to injury.
"
Shawn Smith coming in 15th in his first cross country race at the collegiate level, first race of the season and his first 8K ever and is promising. That is promising that he came out in his first race and did what he did and I think that is motivating for even Nahom who was a top guy in 2019, but hasn't trained in four weeks because of injuries and still was able to hang in there.
"Shawn said man this race is horrible. I said son welcome to college. That was what I said to him and pretty much everyone else who ran except Edwin and Nahom."
Ftwi's performance was particularly impressive despite being far off his best pace because he shows a lot of guts and determination to push through.
"He was miserable and we got results from him that I certainly didn't expect," Drummond said.
Junior
Fasil Amado (Rockville, Maryland) put up a 30:58.70 (29
th) and sophomore
Jalen Gourrier (Cockeysville, Maryland) was 30
th (31:56.0).
"That tells you the type of strength that we have and with five or six weeks left before the conference meet, there is plenty of time for us to get stronger and for other programs to fall apart. We have always been a program that finishes strong. We are just not used to having this pedestrian start."
The Shore will return to action Saturday (Oct, 2) at the Don Cathcart Invitational in Salisbury.
