![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2023\/03\/UMES-2004-HCASC-Facebook-Photo.jpg\")
(Salisbury, Md. Daily Times)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PRINCESS ANNE \u2013 When University of Maryland Eastern Shore senior Matthew Lang arrived in Orlando, Fla. Last week, he was on a mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A member of last year\u2019s UMES Honda Campus All-Star Challenge team, Lang remembers losing to South Carolina State University in the quarterfinals of the national academic competition for historically black colleges and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t sit well with me,\u201d the senior from Prince George\u2019s County said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So last weekend when coach Jackie Thomas told the tea, a rematch with South Carolina State University was coming, Lang, now team captain, saw his chance for vindication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018Doc, we got this,\u2019\u201d Thomas said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lang\u2019s confidence in his team propelled UMES over South Carolina State, pushing the school to its first appearance in the finals of the 15-year contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the UMES team fell short of the championship, losing to Atlanta\u2019s Morehouse College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, finishing second out of 64 schools earned UMES $25,000 in grant money, Thomas said. Lang also received an additional $1,000 for being the tournament\u2019s second-highest individual scorer.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2004\/04\/UMES-at-2004-Finals-1.jpg\")
\u201cThis is one of the best teams I\u2019ve ever coached,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earl Holland, a junior from Snow Hill, credits the team\u2019s diverse background \u2013 all five of the students have different majors \u2013 as their strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo part was greater than the other,\u201d he said. \u201cSome schools were clearly one-man shows and one-man shows can be shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior Mumbi Thande-Kamiru said having three women on the team gave UMES some balance and a different perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a regional qualifying competition at UMES in February and a round-robin elimination round before the finals, first-time members of the team were thrown into a flurry of activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for the team\u2019s two rookies, freshman Quinnisha Smith of Delmar, and New York resident Janiece Blackmon, the experience of their teammates and assistant coach Elden Hawkes, a former team captain himself, made competing for the first time easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I saw the flyer, I had no idea what to expect,\u201d Blackmon said. \u201cBut the veterans walked us through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smith agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMumbi is my mentor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite not winning the competition, Thomas said UMES\u2019 finish is still a good building block for its reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a wonderful learning experience for our students, and they demonstrated on a national stage they can compete with anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Salisbury, Md. Daily Times) PRINCESS ANNE \u2013 When University of Maryland Eastern Shore senior Matthew Lang arrived in Orlando, Fla. Last week, he was on a mission. A member of last year\u2019s UMES Honda Campus All-Star Challenge team, Lang remembers losing to South Carolina State University in the quarterfinals of the national academic competition for…Read more UMES savors high finish in challenge<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":1472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/hcasc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}