NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA (Sept. 8, 2007) – Junior Mark Garcia (Everett, MA) placed fifth overall and led the UMass Lowell men’s cross country team to fifth in the team standings Saturday afternoon at the UMass Dartmouth Shriners Invitational.

With the majority of its first team running the sub-varsity race in preparation for next week’s Iona Meet of Champions, UML scored 127 points (5, 19, 25, 38, 40) and finished behind Trinity (55), Southern Maine (121), Brandeis (123) and Amherst (127), which won the tiebreaker by virtue of a faster sixth-place finish.

Garcia ran the five-mile course in 25:14 while freshman Angus MacDonald (Methuen, MA) placed 19th overall in 25:48 and junior Jack Kilcommons (South Boston, MA) 25th in 25:55.

Freshman Chris Forbes (Methuen, MA) placed 38th in 26:20 and freshman Sean Gelinas (Northwood, NH) completed the scoring in 40th in 26:24. Freshman Greg Wilson (Chelmsford, MA) placed 71st in 27:01 while senior Josh Vance (Strafford, NH) took 80th in 27:16.

Hunter Norte of Trinity College topped all runners with a time of 24:46.

In the sub-varsity race, senior Joey DeWitt (Ellsworth, ME) and graduate student Steve DeWitt (Ellsworth, ME) placed first and second and led four UML runners in the top six places.

Joey and Steve DeWitt each posted a time of 25:37 while sophomore Tim Guerin (Auburn, MA) placed fourth in 25:43. Junior Jason DeDonato (Nashua, NH) placed sixth in 26:08 while freshman Jose DePina (Brockton, MA) placed 12th in 26:41.