Ryan Cartwright is the quintessential athlete and scholar. To attend UMBC, he received an academic scholarship from the State of Maryland and athletic and academic scholarships from UMBC. During his tenure at the school, neither his academics nor his prowess on the cross country/track and field team slipped - in fact, he excelled. Cartwright received awards for academic excellence in information systems and was a member of the Division I championship cross country/track and field team in 2005. The championship turned out to be a family anniversary as well: Ryan's father, Bob Cartwright '80 Economics, was a member of UMBC's 1975 winning cross country team and had come back to campus last fall to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that event.

According to Cartwright, athletics at UMBC have changed from his father's day. "We have excellent facilities," he explains. "We have a very unique indoor track and a brand new turf field. We have a state-of-the-art study lounge in the athletic center and there's free academic advising there and tutoring. We just got a new rehab center right in the athletic center. It's really moving in the right direction."

UMBC captured three America East Conference championship titles in the 2005/06 season (men's cross country, men's swimming and diving, and men's lacrosse), as well as two second-place finishes (men's indoor track and field and women's swimming and diving), and two regular season titles (men's soccer and women's lacrosse). Cartwright notes that with these wins, UMBC has gone from being just another team to becoming a household name. "We're not just UMBC anymore, we're a contender."