The Wesleyan cross-country teams traveled to the New England Championships in Boston on Friday to test their running skills with some of the best teams in New England.The results show that each team could truly compete with anyone this season. The women took 12th place out of the 45 competing teams, and the men took 17th place out of 48 competing teams.
Captain Courtney Quirin ’05 paced the women, finishing the Franklin Park 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes and 54 seconds, good for seventh place out of the 302 entrants, many of whom run in Division I programs. Coming in 18 seconds later was Ellen Davis ’07, who crossed the finish line in 12th place.
“Overall, the women’s team did well, despite the fact that some women had a mediocre performance and several women had outstanding performances,” Quirin said. “This is really exciting and says a lot about the depth on our team. I’m getting really excited for NESCACs. It’s going to be great competition!”
Rounding out the scoring five for the Cardinals was Delia Sprinstubb ’08 continuing her excellent first year with a 76th place finish (19:20), Megan Wise ’05 finishing in 134th place (19:57), and Liz Colville ’05 placing 140th (20:00).
“We girl runners are just warming up I think, and when it comes down to it I believe that we will be one big dynamo,” Wise said. “We’ll be ready for NESCACs [at Colby]. We have been following our team mantra: work smarter AND harder AND barter and you’ll get farther.”
For the men, Owen Kiely ’06 finished 29th in a field of 315 runners, running 8,000 meters in 25:29. Captain Wes Fuhrman ’05 came in at 51st with a time of 25:52, and the perennial solid performer Jon King ’07 placed 116th with a time of 26:49. Jeremy Solomon ’05 continued to run well in his so far injury-free comeback season, covering the course in 27:01, good for 130th place. Anda Greeney ’07 rounded out the scoring five for the Cardinals, finishing in 166th place (27:05), a pretty good finish considering that Wesleyan was competing against New England’s best runners in Division III as well as Division I. Greeney was quick to credit a teammate who also had a great performance.
“Ed ‘Stompy’ Kenney had a bust out performance, stomping his twin brother [Will Kenney of Bates College] in the junior varsity race, bringing glory to Wesleyan and reducing Bates team moral,” Greeney said.
The next test for the Red and Black runners will come on Saturday when they travel to the Twin Brook Invitational in Cumberland, Maine. They will have one final tune-up a week later when they host the Little Threes, and then the Derrty Birds will fly off to one of the most anticipated and important meets of the season, the NESCAC Championships on Oct. 30.
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