The Massachusetts cross country teams will travel to New York, as Albany hosts the 40th Annual Cross Country Invitational. The Minutemen will run on the 8-kilometer course and the Minutewomen will race a 5-kilometer course.
This year's field includes 28 men's teams and 26 women's teams. The New Hampshire Wildcats won both the men's and women's team competitions a year ago.
UMass has not run in Albany since 2004; in that race the men placed 5th and the women placed 6th overall. Five of the women who ran in the Albany race that season are still on the team: junior Christina DeRosa, senior Cuisle Kierans, senior Erin O'Donnell, junior Ashley Davidson and junior Amanda Bodette.
As a freshman, DeRosa finished 9th at Albany and first for the Minutewomen. Running at Albany for the Minutemen as freshmen were junior Matthew Klypka, who placed 33rd, and Fischer, who finished 40th overall.
The Minutemen are a very young group, and most of the team was still in high school when the team ran this course in 2004.
Last weekend both teams ran well at the New England Championships. Some of them were honored by the Atlantic 10 for their performances. Junior Jesse Regnier was named the A-10 Men's Performer of the Week. He placed 13th overall at New England's with a time of 25:12. It's the second time he finished first overall for the team; he placed first two weeks ago at the home meet against Boston College and Maine.
Freshman Nicolai Naranjo earned A-10 Men's Rookie of the Week after the New England's. This is the second time he received this honor. He is one of the core runners for the young team, placing within the top five in every race he has ran. Last weekend Naranjo placed 76th overall and ranked sixth among all freshmen in the race.
DeRosa continues her great season as she was awarded A-10 Women's Performer of the Week. At the New England's she posted her best time of 18:30, good for a 32nd-place finish. For DeRosa it is the 18th-consecutive race she has finished first for the Minutewomen.
For the Minutewomen to improve UMass coach Julie LaFreniere would like her top five runners to inch closer with DeRosa.
"DeRosa is running pretty well, she's out front, but the rest of the pack, they're running in a tight pack. We just need to close that gap a little bit more," LaFreniere said.
Injuries are one of the reasons the Minutewomen cannot move the pack closer to DeRosa. Each week a top-five runner is injured in the race or before the race.
The list of injuries this season include: junior Amber Sayer's battle with the flu, and then her hurt back the next week, freshman Lauren Liuzzo sprained her ankle before a race last week but should be ready to run this week, Bodette battled knee tendonitis the first month of the season and freshman Shiyi Zan from Ottawa, Ontario is injured and has missed the entire cross country season.
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