Cross Country at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational
Saturday, September 20 | 11:20 a.m. (men) / 12 p.m. (women)
Robert Dowd Course | Dartmouth, Mass.

THE SETUP
• The Babson men's and women's cross country teams will be back on the course for the first time in three weeks at the 52nd Annual UMass Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday.
• The men's runners will race in the Robert "Buddy" Harris '76 varsity 8K race at 11:20 a.m. while the women will run in a 5K race at 12 noon. There are also sub-varsity races at 10:30 a.m. (men) and 12:40 p.m. (women).

HISTORY LESSON
• The Beavers are set to race at UMass Dartmouth for the 23rd time in the last 28 years on Saturday.
• The men's team has posted nine top-10 finishes, which includes a third-place showing in 1999 to go along with a fifth-place result in 2021.
• The women's squad has come in as high as 12th three times, the last of which came in 2011.

LAST YEAR AT UMASS DARTMOUTH
• Anthony Rodriguez '24 M'25 finished in 12th place among 343 runners to lead the Babson men to a ninth place finish among 44 schools at the rainy UMass Dartmouth Invitational on September 21, 2024, while the Beaver women finished in 25th out of 45 teams.
• Rodriguez posted a time of 25:19 on the Robert Dowd 8K course, the 15th fastest 8K time in program history and his third best. Julian Ivarra '25 was the next Babson competitor across the line, finishing in 34th place in 25:48, and sophomore Nick Yacoub was 61st in 26:11.
• Sophomore Shriya Peddi had a strong performance for the Beaver women, finishing 59th among the 346 runners in the 5K race in 19:19, placing 17th among Division III competitors. Senior Chloe Clifford was the second finisher for the Green and White, coming in 130th in a time of 20:12, and sophomore Sophia Draxler crossed the line in 167th place in 20:43.

SCOUTING THE BABSON MEN
• Yacoub crossed the finish line in ninth place among 159 runners to lead Babson to a fourth-place finish at the season-opening Suffolk Short Course Classic back on August 30 at Highland Park in Attleboro, Mass.
• Yacoub finished third among Division III runners in the 5K race in a time of 15:55, while first-years Calvin Volkmann (23rd, 16:24) and Oliver Jones (27th, 16:27.26) turned in strong performances in their collegiate debuts. Sophomore Brian Ronayne was a half-second behind Jones in 28th place in 16:27.70, and first-year Arthur Boulot rounded out the top five for the Beavers in his collegiate debut, finishing 35th in 16:37.
• The Green and White had six returning runners in the race along with five newcomers.

SCOUTING THE BABSON WOMEN
• The Beavers placed their top five runners between 47th and 70th place among the 190 competitors on the way to a fifth-place team finish at the at the season-opening Suffolk Short Course Classic back on August 30 at Highland Park.
• Draxler was the first Beaver across the finish line, coming in 47th place in a time of 12:19 on the 3K course. Clifford was the next to finish in 51st place in 12:25, 16 seconds better than her time on the same course last season. Senior Alexandra Kirkpatrick (12:33) and first-year Ali Meyers (12:37) came in 60th and 61st for the Beavers, and senior Avery Butt rounded out the team's top five, finishing 70th in 12:41.
• Junior Taijah Harvey turned in a solid performance for the Beavers, placing 85th in a time of 12:56. First-year Sophia Nakakura crossed the line in 101st place in 13:10 in her collegiate debut, and sophomore Annabelle Svenson was 113th in 13:27.

FAST TIMES AT UMASS DARTMOUTH
• Many of the top times in Babson history have come on the Robert Dowd Course at UMass Dartmouth, including Rodriguez breaking a 30-year-old men's program record in 2021 with a 24:29, bettering the previous record of 25:06 by Joey Curtis '92 in 1991, and the third-best in program history.
• Mark Gulesian '15 ran 25:09 in 2012, still one of the top dozen times in program annals, as well as a 25:17 in 2014, while Rodriguez clocked a 25:14 in 2022 and 25:19 last year. Ryan Wilson '22 M'24 finished in 25:17 in 2021 for the 19th best time in program history, and Matthew Dynan '19 crossed the line in 25:23 in 2017, which ranks 25th all-time.
• Ten of the top 30 5K times in women's history have come at UMass Dartmouth, including Babson Hall of Famer Marina Capalbo '15 running a 19:01 in 2012, which is 10th-best all-time. Charlotte Margel '13 ran a 19:09 in 2011, Natalie Cummings clocked a 19:13 in 2010, and Peddi posted a time of 19:19 last year, which ranks 23rd in program history.

PRESENCE IN THE POLLS
• The Babson men are ranked seventh in the first USTFCCCA East Region poll this fall.
• The Beavers are third among NEWMAC schools behind MIT (2nd) and WPI (3rd).

UP NEXT
• The Beavers will compete again at the Hopkinton Cross Country Festival at the Hopkinton (N.H.) Fairgrounds on October 10.