The Maine Cross Country teams traveled to Boston to partake in the Coast to Coast Battle of Franklin Park, or the Battle of Beantown, on Friday Sept. 24. The meet had over 20 schools from around New England in attendance, with the farthest participant being Florida State. The men’s team finished in 18th with a score of 482 and the women’s team finished in 24th with a score of 731.

The winner of the men’s home meet from last week, third-year Jesse Orach, finished the 8k race 51st out of 189 runners with a time of 25:00. Fourth-year Levi Frye, the second Black Bear to cross the finish line, ran a 25:34 and finished in 90th place. First-year Aaron Willingham (120th with a 25:55), third-year Justin Tracy (148th with a 26:26) and fourth-year Derrek Schultz (150th with a 26:30) rounded out the rest of the top five finishers for Maine.

The top three Black Bears remained the same as last week, but Tracy and Schultz pushed themselves up to fourth and fifth place. The men’s team finished ahead of the University of New Hampshire, the University at Albany and Rhode Island University, and 18th overall of 21 competing men’s teams.

Fourth-year Annabelle Wilson, the Black Bears’ no. 1 runner from last week, crossed the 5k finish line with a time of 19:21 in 164th place. After her came first-year Hope Gardner in 179th place at 19:46. First-year Faith Gardner finished third for Maine in 189th place running a 20:04, and fourth-year Shannon O’Neil with second-year Cassandra Howard finishing in shortly afterwards at 191st and 192nd place with times of 20:07 and 20:08 respectively. The top three runners for the women’s team were the same from last week as well, but O’Neil and Howard both surged forward to take fourth and fifth place for the Maine team.

The next meet for the Black Bears is Oct. 10. The teams will return to Boston, this time to take place in the New England Championships.