UB cross country finished in 11th place in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown in Boston on Friday afternoon.
The Bulls competed against nationally ranked programs and earned a score of 349 points, which placed them 11th out of 20 schools. Sixth-ranked Arkansas won the competition with a score of 39 points, leading a pack that also included runners from Syracuse, Duke and Harvard.
With an 8k time of 25:26, senior Scott LoForte paved the way for the Bulls, finishing 55th overall. Junior Armani Merlino finished in 59th place just three seconds later (25:29). Senior Ryan Buzby placed 69th with a time of 25:44.
For his first 8k of the season, junior Alex Hislop finished fourth for UB and 97th overall with a time of 26:11. Graduate student Thomas Flannery closed out the Bulls’ top five with a time of 26:15, which ranked 101st overall out of more than 165 runners.
Graduate students Patrick Hazlitt and Michael Neeson and sophomores William Marchant and Sean O’Brien also hit the trails for UB during Saturday’s meet.
Hazlitt finished at 26:45 (116th overall) while Marchant finished just six seconds behind, at 26:51 (123rd overall). Neeson crossed the finish line a minute later with a 27:57 race time and O’Brien did not finish.
The Bulls will race again Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.
The sports desk can be reached at sports@ubspectrum.com
Kayla Sterner is an assistant sports editor at The Spectrum. She is studying communications with the hopes of being a sideline reporter. In her spare time, she can be found in the gym, watching football or vibing to Mac Miller. Kayla is on Twitter @kaylasterner.
