Wednesday, July 23, 2025



Cross Country Finishes Second at Home Invitational

Sept. 25, 2010, was a hot, humid Saturday for the men’s and women’s cross country teams as they ran across Long Lane Farm in the Wesleyan Invitational. Although there were six teams competing, the race turned into a NESCAC duel between Wesleyan and Bowdoin.

The Wesleyan men fell to Bowdoin 34-24 in the 8k race. Skyler Cummins ’13 placed third overall and was the first Cardinal to cross the finish line with a time of 27:30. Placing fourth overall was Matthew Katz ’11 with a time of 27:31, Jamie Lawrence ’12 came in sixth at 27:40, Bryan Marsh ’13 clocked in at 28:00 to come in tenth, and Charles Lang ’11 finished eleventh with a time of 28:05.

“We have a pretty unforgiving course,” Katz said. “About two miles in, I wanted to just stop, but I thought about the team and pushed forward. Once you get halfway through the course, it gets better.”

For the next race, in two weeks, Katz and the rest of the team plan to have the top five runners stay within 15 seconds of each other to provide a solid force.

“We just need to tighten up our pack. Bowdoin is going down,” Katz said.

On the women’s side, in the 5k race, Wesleyan fell to Bowdoin by two points, 29-27. Julia Mark ’13 came in second overall with a time of 19:51. Libby Lazare ’14 clocked in third at 19:55, Julie Platt ’12 was sixth at 19:57, Jessica Levin ’11 was seventh with 11:58, and Tess Crain ’12 finished eleventh at 20:40.

Lazare enjoyed running with a pack of girls in her college debut.

“I was really nervous about running in my first meet, but it’s nice having girls to run with, pace with, and say encouraging words to,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how comfortable I’d be with uniforms at first, but I like them.”

The experience of running with older teammates Levin, Platt, and Mark encouraged Lazare to calm her nerves and turn in a successful first race. The most challenging part for Lazare was the finish, which is right after the very steep “hill of death”. For the next meet, Lazare plans to work on hills by staying with the group of girls during the hilly parts of the workouts.

Although the Wesleyan cross country team might not have come out victorious over Bowdoin at the Wesleyan Invitational, the Cards will continue to work hard knowing that the beginning of the season is the time to build into good racing shape in order to peak at the end of the season.

Unlike most NESCAC schools, which race every week, the Cards race once every two weeks in order to focus on the end of the season. “Racing is mentally draining.” Katz said. “Winning races early on isn’t as important as winning at the end.”

Running this first NESCAC race gave the Cardinals a serious challenge that allowed them to pump some competitive energy back into their veins. The Cards will look to improve on this weekend when they travel up to Boston, Mass. on Saturday, Oct. 9, to race in the New England Open Meet at Franklin Park. The meet has over 300 competitors representing 65 colleges from the six New England states.

Comments

3 responses to “Cross Country Finishes Second at Home Invitational”

  1. Auntie Sara Avatar
    Auntie Sara

    Woo Hoo! You show them Libby!

  2. Fan Avatar
    Fan

    Way to go WesXC men and woman. Great job by all.

  3. Cardinal Supporter Avatar
    Cardinal Supporter

    Congrats! have a great season.

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