On Sunday afternoon, the men’s and women’s cross country squads competed in the 2009 NESCAC Championships, hosted by Trinity at Wickham Park in Manchester. Led by the second-place effort of captain Ravenna Neville ’10, the Wesleyan women finished fourth out of 11 teams in their race, while the Cardinal men placed eighth of 11 squads.

“People’s races varied. Some people were pleased with their performances and others not so much,” said Julia Mark ’13 of the women’s showing in the 3.8-mile race. “Overall, though, the team was really happy about placing fourth.”

Neville took second in the event with a final time of 21:40. Finishing only one second behind the first-place finisher, Amherst’s Sophia Gelleher, Neville led the group for the majority of the race, but Gelleher snuck by her right before the finish line.

Mark, who took home fifth place, also ran well for Wesleyan with a time of 22:15. Next for Wesleyan was Rose Keogh ‘13, who took 19th with a final time of 22:53. Eleven seconds later, Sarah White ’11 finished the race in 27th place with at time of 23:04. Rounding out the group was Tess Crain ’12 who completed the course in 23:29 for 42nd place.

“As the season is closing, it is great to see our team’s training pay off at a competitive race like NESCACs for a fourth place,” said Keogh. “We are already just feeding off each others’ success and energy—it’s why we’ve been able to consistently perform well.”

The final tallies for the women were Middlebury with 49 points, followed by Williams with 59, Amherst with 71, and Wesleyan with 87.
Led by freshman Bryan Marsh, who placed 23rd with a time of 27:27, the Wesleyan men finished eighth out of the 11 teams. Although the team was not completely satisfied with the results of its race, the Cardinals remain confident in their abilities.

“As a team, we work harder and have the potential to be much better than the eighth-place finish indicates,” said captain Justin Spring ’10. “We just have to put races like this behind us and refocus.”

Coming in next for the Cardinals was Charles Lang ’11. Lang placed 28th, completing the race in 27:42. Matt Katz ’11 clocked in a second later, placing 29th with a time of 27:43. Marc Whittington ’13 was next to cross the finish line for the Cards. Whittington finished the five-mile race in 53rd place with a time of 28:05. Close behind was Spring, who placed 56th with a time of 28:07.

Williams ran away with the men’s race, earning its NESCAC-record 12th title with 40 points, followed by Amherst with 88, Tufts with 90, and Middlebury with 104.

“Today was a little disappointing because we know we could have done better,” said Marsh. “Although we weren’t able to show what we are capable of today, Regionals [are] in two weeks and that will be our time to run up to our potential and beat some teams we should have beaten today.”

After a solid showing on Sunday, the Cardinals are looking forward to seeing some of the same teams again next weekend.

“We have some really big and important meets coming up,” said Mark. “It should be exciting to see what we can do. We’ve been training hard throughout the season and for the months and even years prior. I think we have the potential to make this a really memorable season.”
The Cardinals compete next at the ECAC Division III Championships, which will be hosted by Williams at Mt. Greylock High School on Saturday, Nov. 7.