BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's men's cross country team couldn't have done any better in their opening meet of the season at Massachusetts Maritime's Travis J. Fuller Invitational Saturday.

The Corsair men placed five runners in the top 10 and finished first in an eight-team field with 25 points, 32 points ahead of second-place Mass Maritime. The women did not receive a team score because they only had four runners participate, but two of them finished in the top ten.

Freshman Kevin Gilmore (Hanson, Mass./Whitman-Hanson) made his debut by finishing first in 26:02. Senior Eric Holmes (Abington, Mass./Abington) was third in 26:15, junior Derek Stevens (Swampscott, Mass./Swampscott) was fourth in 26:16, sophomore Eric Nygaard (Medway, Mass./Medway) was seventh in 27:14, sophomore Steve Burke (Norwell, Mass./Norwell) 10th in 27:59, freshman Travis Wright (Hanson, Mass./Whitman-Hanson) was 15th in 28:28, freshman Jared Correia (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) was 16th in 28:38, junior Matt Lemanski (East Longmeadow, MA/East Longmeadow) 21st in 29:26, junior Tim Whelan (Abington, MA/Abington) 24th in 29:30, sophomore Ryan Sechovicz (Kingston, MA/Silver Lake Regional) was 29th in 30:09, and sophomore Wes Meserve (Merrimac, MA/Pentucket) was 26th in 29:44.

"We did really well for our opening race of the season," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Jon Hird. "Our team felt good about what they did. I was very happy with our two freshmen, Kevin and Courtney. For the men, Stevens and Nygaard both had personal bests. We trained well over the summer, and it showed."

The Corsairs will return to action when they host the annual UMass Dartmouth Invitational next Saturday.