At the America East (AE) Cross Country Championships on Friday, redshirt senior Emily Mackay went neck-and-neck with UMass Lowell’s graduate student Kaley Richards in the closing 200 meters of the women’s 5K. The two runners battled it out to the finish line where Mackay edged out her opponent, beating Richards by a fraction of a second and claiming her spot as the first female Bearcat to win a conference title since 1983.

“It was a fantastic performance, [Mackay] couldn’t have executed it any better,” said Binghamton head coach Annette Acuff. “She was very patient early on … it was perfectly played out.”

On Friday afternoon, Mackay finished with a time of 17:27.01, earning both the individual conference title and a place in the NCAA championships later this month. She is the first female athlete in program history to qualify for the national championship meet.

“I felt very prepared going into the race,” Mackay said. “[Acuff] is a great coach and we talked through a great strategy. It’s such an honor to be the first Binghamton female to go to the NCAA meet. It’s been a great season and all of the stars aligned for me.”

Last season, junior Aziza Chigatayeva stole the spotlight for the Bearcats, clocking in at 17:04.95 in fourth, while Mackay ran a time of 18:46.84 to take 38th. On Friday, Chigatayeva still managed to take fourth place with a time of 17:57.89, but Mackay turned the tides to run almost half a minute faster than her teammate and over a full minute quicker than her previous season’s performance.

“[Chigatayeva] missed quite a bit of time this past year because she had surgery last winter,” Acuff said. “So to be able to put herself in the top four again is very impressive, but it doesn’t surprise me. She always puts herself in a position to be in the race.”

Even with Mackay and Chigatayeva in the driver’s seat, the Bearcats struggled to keep up with UMass Lowell’s deep roster. The River Hawks swept the meet with 44 points to take the AE title while Binghamton fell to fifth with 127 points, having no other runners finishing in the upper echelon of the scoreboard.

In the men’s race, UMass Lowell proved equally as dominant. While the River Hawks dominated the meet with a 22-point finish for first place, four Bearcats still managed to sneak their way into the top 30. Spearheading Binghamton’s 8K team was redshirt junior Dan Schaffer, who fell behind the three River Hawks but still crossed the line in fourth with a time of 24:49.95. In 2018, Schaffer managed a second-place finish, and he missed out on last season’s competition due to injury.

“He had a minor injury that kept him out for a little,” Acuff said. “He’s so talented and I think had he not missed a bunch of time, he would’ve been right there, fighting. He would’ve had a great chance to win.”

Following Schaffer, sophomore Matthew Cavaliere took 14th place, clocking in at 25:15.35. Redshirt junior Matthew Goyden landed in 25th, with a time of 25:58.03, and redshirt junior David Leff rounded out Binghamton’s top-four in 26th place, clocking in at 25:59:35, right behind his teammate. Trailing Vermont by only two points, the Bearcats finished fourth overall at the meet with 93 points.

“Everything with testing protocols and safety measures that we have in place … it’s been a challenging season,” Acuff said.

Following her performance at the conference meet, Mackay will get the opportunity to compete at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Monday, March 15 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.