BOSTON (October 8, 2016) – After taking last weekend off, the Franklin Pierce University men's cross country team was less than impressive on Saturday afternoon, as the Ravens placed just one runner in the top-100 of a 221-athlete field at the NEICAAA Championships at Franklin Park. Senior B.J. Smith (Concord, N.H.) led the way for the Ravens in 53rd place, as the team would finish 21st out of 34 teams from across New England representing all three NCAA divisions. Among Division II teams, the Ravens were fourth, trailing fellow Northeast-10 Conference members American International, Stonehill and Bentley.

Smith checked in with an 8k time of 25.52.2, which was nearly 20 seconds off his time at the same event a year ago, which would set the tone for the Ravens on the day. After Smith in 53rd, it was over another 50 spots back to the next Franklin Pierce runner, as freshman Aidan Gilbride (East Kilbride, Scotland) placed 107th, with a time of 26:37.2.

Franklin Pierce would not even place all of its scoring five in the top 150, as senior Dage Minors (Hamilton Parish, Bermuda) followed in 137th (26:55.6), senior Jon Holmes (Albany, N.Y.) took 139th (26:56.4) and freshman Jeff Reddy (Chester, N.H.) finished in 152nd (27:05.0). Minors' time was over a minute off his time from the event last year, while Holmes was the lone scoring Raven to improve on his NEICAAA Championship time from last year -- though he had finished outside the top 200 in 2015.

It all added up to 588 points and a disappointing 21st-place finish for the Ravens, who took 17th last year and 14th in 2014. Up front, Northeastern (102 points) claimed the New England title by 11 points over Brown (113 points). MIT (133 points) in third, Boston University (156 points) in fourth and Maine (156 points) in fifth rounded out the top five. American International sophomore Leakey Kipkosgei turned in a time of 24:21.6 to take home the individual crown, bettering Brown junior Matt Mahoney (24:23.9) by just over two seconds.

The Ravens return to action on Saturday, Oct. 22, when they travel to the Northeast-10 Championship, hosted by Stonehill in Easton, Mass.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce cross country apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).