The men’s and women’s cross country teams opened up their championship season this weekend with the Open New England Championships at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass. Heavy rainfall and tight turns made for slippery conditions, but the men’s and women’s teams were unfazed and managed 10th and 24th place finishes, respectively, in fields comprised of over 40 quality teams from all three NCAA divisions.
The women’s team was led by a gutsy 5th place finish from Ellen Davis ’07 who covered the 5k course in just 18:00, confirming her position as one of the best Division III runners in the country. Co-captain Erin Smith ’06 followed Davis in 19:18, well enough for 67th place in an exceptionally competitive field. Delia Springstubb ’08 (19:59), Anna Schindler ’09 (20:58) and co-captain Cara Chebuske ’06 (21:30) rounded out the team’s scoring five. Also having an excellent day for the Cardinals was Megan Kretz ’07 who led the women in the junior varsity race. The women harriers placed 8th among schools in their region.
“It was a wet and wild day,” Kretz said after the race. “Nonetheless, we came out running hard against the top teams in New England, despite being shorthanded, resting three of our top-7 runners due to nagging injuries. But when the time comes at Little Threes and NESCAC, we’ll be ready to pounce, or better yet peck away at our competition and fly far ahead of the pack.”
The men’s program continued their pursuit of a regional championship and national berth by mixing it up with three of its fiercest regional rivals: Williams, Tufts and Keene State, ranked 6th, 9th and 13th respectively in the national polls. While the Cards managed to knock off Keene State by a margin of over 100 points they came up just shy of Tufts and Williams, losing to the later by only 5 points.
Once again the duo of Co-Captains Wes Fuhrman and Owen Kiely ’06 led the Cardinals, finishing in 20th (21:35) and 24th (21:41) respectively. Kiely and Fuhrman led the Wesleyan pack through two miles before breaking away and passing nearly fifty runners in the final three miles. Wesleyan’s next finisher was the always-consistent junior Jon King, crossing the line in 26:15 good for 51st place. Alex Battaglino ’07 and Anda Greeney ’07 also turned in gritty performances for the Cardinals, crossing the line in 26:51 (89th) and 26:54 (97th) respectively. Sean Watson ’08 finished in 27:26 (156th) and Nate Huddell ’07 (167th) stopped the clock at 27:30, rounding out the top-7 for the Cardinals.
“We certainly brought it thug-style today,” Greeney said. “Covered in mud and soaked, we rolled on New England opponents like the game got real.”
The team showed its depth and emerged as contenders for the ECAC Championships during the day’s final event, the junior varsity race. Mike Brady ’07 started to get his act together this season, finishing in 24th in 27:13. He was closely followed by a hard-kicking Nick Holowka in 27:35 (42nd) and scrappy young freshman, Jonah Blumstein in 27:39 (45th).
“What a race,” Blumstein said. “The course was super muddy, and it was tough getting around, especially in the spooky wilderness, but hey that’s cross-country, right?” Blumstein is quickly emerging as one of the region’s top freshmen and should play a major role for the team in the future.
Despite losing to Williams by a few points, the team took consolation that if the meet was scored like Little Threes, which occur in two weeks, the team would emerge as one-point victors over Williams, which has won seventeen straight Little Three titles.
In today’s speech to the team, Coach John Crooke expressed his feelings on the upcoming race.
“[Williams is] scared and know that they’re beatable,” Crooke said. “They’ve almost become complacent in the past few years, but now is our time. No question, they will come out fighting, but if we head up to Williamstown and race focused for 5-miles, and we will come out on top.”
Leave a Reply