It was a historic day in Springfield for the men’s cross-country team on Saturday. The Cardinals finished second to earn a trip to Division III Nationals for the first time in team history, and Co-Captain Owen Kiely ’06 won the race to become the New England Division III champion.

Kiely finished the 8,000-meter race in 25:01, nine seconds ahead of the favored Neal Holtschulte of Williams. Three other Cardinals garnered All-New England honors by finishing in the top 35 in a field of 303 runners. Co-Captain Wes Fuhrman ’05 placed eleventh (25:59), Jon King ’07 finished 15th (26:07), and Mike Brady ’07 came in 32nd (26:28). Anda Greeney ’07 rounded out the scoring five in 59th place (26:54), giving the Cardinals a second place finish out of 43 teams, losing only to Tufts, and clinching one of three berths to Nationals.

“We got some really big performances out of King and Mad Dog [Brady],” Kiely said. “Jon’s been rock solid all year and very consistent. Mad Dog’s been coming on really strong in the last couple of weeks, so he’s definitely the x-factor this season. As my career and Wes’s career here are coming to an end, it’s great to see the two of them and Anda developing so well. It was a really emotional day. We came in ranked fourth in the region, and we all knew that we could be third. We pulled off second.”

Kiely took the lead three miles into the race and never looked back, finishing with a strong kick to further distance himself from Holtschulte.

“I really thought he was going to pass me,” Kiely said of Holtschulte. “Around 600 meters or so to go, I realized I shouldn’t wait for him to catch me, and I just decided to go for it. I’ve never beaten Holtschulte before, so obviously that’s something I’ve spent a lot of nights dreaming about. If you don’t believe that you’re capable of something, you’re not going to be able to do it, and I was finally there mentally this year.”

The women had an impressive race as well, finishing seventh out of 41 teams. Ellen Davis ’07 covered 6,000 meters in 21:51, good for seventh place out of 281 runners, All-New England honors, and a trip to Nationals to represent her team.

“It’s going to be really exciting to see Ellen, our superstar, and the guys at Nationals,” said Lucia Pier ’08.

Pier and Erin Smith ’06 narrowly missed the top 35, finishing 37th (23:10) and 38th (23:11) respectively. Delia Springstubb placed 56th (23:40), and Anna Schindler ’09 finished 87th (24:12) to round out the scoring five.

“In terms of the girls’ race, no one expected us to do anything this season, so it was exciting to get seventh,” Pier said. “Everyone performed strongly on a really tough course. Coach [John Crooke] said we just had to go out there and fight as hard as we could. We all ran really well, and just because we didn’t qualify, it doesn’t mean we didn’t have a good race. It was a really exciting day for the guys though.”

The women ran solid races, but the men made history. In addition to qualifying for Nationals, the second place finish by nationally unranked Wesleyan stunned ninth-ranked Little Three rival Williams, a team that has had its way with the Cardinals in recent years. Coupled with 17th-ranked Keene State’s third place finish, the Ephs, who finished fourth, find themselves without a seemingly sure invitation to Nationals.

“I’ve been telling myself all year that we could beat Williams, and we really believed it on Saturday, and that’s why it happened,” Kiely said. “This is the first time we’ve ever beat Williams in Coach Crooke’s tenure, which is definitely something special because he’s done so much for our program and we’ve been coming on so strongly in the last couple of years.”

Crooke was recently named NESCAC co-Men’s Coach of the Year, and has a legitimate claim to be the New England Coach of the Year after leading the men to the Nationals. Crooke also led the women, who qualified for Nationals last year, to a strong season this year despite losing key runners to injuries and graduation.

“Obviously, co-NESCAC Coach of the Year does not come even close to defining what he is to us,” Kiely said. “When you look back at where we were when we got here, it’s amazing what he’s done for this team, making it national caliber. To see him smiling after the race was worth every minute of the years and years of training. He’s definitely proud of us and he does a great job for this team and for me. Running is my life. I started running in seventh grade, and I was a decent high school runner at best.”

Kiely is the first Cardinal to win the New England title since Joe Mahoney ’94 won his second straight in 1993. Holtschulte, the distant second place finisher on Saturday, finished second at Nationals last year, and the man who beat him graduated and went pro, meaning that Kiely could end his collegiate cross-country career as the Division III National Champion.

The NCAA Division III Championship will be held at Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday. Davis, who raced at Nationals with her team last year, is looking to repeat Fuhrman’s 2004 feat and become an All-American after individually qualifying for the race. The men will try to finish as a top-ten team with a national champion on it.

“I’ve come a long way as a runner, and winning the region was great,” Kiely said. “It’s something I’m still coming to grips with, but I’m not complacent or celebrating too much. Our goal as a team should be top ten or fifteen, and nobody remembers the Regional champ unless he’s done something at Nationals.”