For many teams, these past few weeks of the collegiate cross country season have served as an opportunity to continue heavy training, rest top athletes, and not race all-out. Though, as the leaves begin to change and the days get cooler, we inch closer and closer to the heart of the season. The time has come to start racing hard, compete head-to-head against rival teams, and this past weekend, many teams followed that advice and showed their stuff.
On Saturday, quite a few New England squads fled the region and headed down to the renowned Van Cortland Park (VCP) for the 20th Annual Iona Meet of Champions. For those who have never raced at VCP, it is truly a hallowed and grueling one-hundred-year-old course. It’s a course that has hosted hundreds of dual meets, a USATF championship, Foot Locker Regionals, NCAAs, and the largest high school cross country meet in the country—the Manhattan College Invitational.
The cool fall morning started off with the women toeing the line first. Twenty-two minutes and twenty-six seconds later, Silvia Del Salva of SUNY Albany crossed the line first. Though, not far behind Del Salva was a large pack of Lady Bears. The women of Brown placed six runners in the top 12 and had a 13-second spread between their one and five runners, leaving them with an impressive 38 points and a victory over Ivy League rival Yale. Leading the Bear charge was junior Lily Harrington (Conard HS, CT) who finished 5th overall in 22:34. Right behind Harrington was teammate and senior Leah Eickhoff (Hanover HS, NH) running 22:41 and finishing 6th. Within two seconds of Eickhoff’s finish, Lucy Van Kluenen crossed the line in 22:42 for 7th and Lydia Davenport finished 8th in 22:42. Just missing out in scoring for Brown was junior Charlotte Walmsley (Weston, HS), who nabbed 12th place and ran 22:47.
After the women’s race, it was the men’s turn to try their luck on the historic VCP 8k course. If you’re too overzealous and impatient, the back hills of Van Cortland Park can be absolutely punishing. Though, UMass Lowell senior Bobby Allen (Cranston West HS, RI) bid his time well and made a decisive move from the lead pack with about 2000m to go. Allen eventually went on to win the race and finish in a very respectable time of 25:32. Fighting alongside Allen in the lead pack for a majority of the race was freshman teammate Paul Hogan (Burlington HS, MA). Hogan finished at an impressive 6th and clocked in at 25:49. After Hogan came Connor O’Doyle (Bishop Hendricken HS,RI) and Padriac Donovan (Lowell HS,MA) in 35th and 36th place, respectively. The two finished virtually together in times of 26:42 and 26:43. Rounding out the top five for the River Hawks was freshman Randy Nong (Lowell HS, MA), who ran 27:03 for 53rdplace. The River Hawk men would go onto finish 4th overall with 132 points. Visit the Umass-Lowell photo gallery of the Iona Meet of champions here
Iona Meet of Champions Results
A little closer to home this past weekend was the UMass Dartmouth Invitational. The UMass Dartmouth course is well-known for being fast, consisting primarily of athletic fields spread across the college’s campus. This past Saturday was no different, as we saw BJ Smith (Concord HS, NH) of Franklin Pierce take the overall win in a quick 24:48, a full nine seconds to spare over the second-place finisher Lee Cattanach of Eastern Connecticut State. Smith’s overall individual victory also helped in a dominating team victory for the Franklin Pierce Ravens (50) over second-place WPI (100). Also helping in the low team point total was the 4th-place finish by Colton Ham (Merrimack Valley HS, NH) in 25:09 and 6th-place finish of Antoine Gisore (Concord HS, NH) with a time of 25:11. WPI’s second-place team finish was spearheaded by the 3rd-place overall finish of senior Ryan Moran (Pembroke HS, MA) who crossed the line in 25:06.
In the women’s race, the overall winner was sophomore Alison Decker of East Stroudsburg University in a time of 17:50. Though, nipping at her heels was Ashley Curran (Mount St. Charles Acad, RI) of Conn. College who placed second overall in a time of 17:52. Rounding out the top-five finishers was Maddie Dolins of Brandeis who finished 4th in 18:03 and Gabriella Gaudreault (Leominster HS, MA) of Springfield College who ran 18:07 for 5th place. The women’s team race went to East Stroudsburg with 93 points; New Paltz State finished second with 113 points, and Conn. College finished third overall with 143 points.
UMass Dartmouth Invitational Results
Miscellaneous:
Middlebury College hosted their Aldrich Invitational this past Saturday and it was another strong showing by the host teams. In the women’s race, Middlebury went a dominating 1 – 6 and senior Katie Carlson (Wachusett HS, MA) won the overall race in a time of 18:49. Middlebury went 1 – 2 in the men’s race with Kevin Wood and Wilder Schaff finishing in 26:08 and 26:42. The men won the team race with 30 points over Colby’s 47.
Upcoming Major Collegiate Meets in New England:
9/26/14 – Coast to Coast Battle in Beantown 2014 @ Franklin Park
9/27/14 – Williams Purple Valley Invitational @ Williams College