The men’s and women’s cross country teams split up, sending some runners to the Pre-Nationals meet in Illinois, while others stayed closer to home for the Rowan Inter-Regional meet in New Jersey.
The 17th-ranked men and the first-ranked women got a small taste of what is to come at Nationals later this season at the Pre-Nationals meet this past weekend.
The Jays were introduced to the Principia Cross Country Course in Elsah, Ill., where the 2017 NCAA D-III Cross Country National Championships will be held on Nov. 18.
The men’s team was led by senior Panth Patel, who has been pacing the Jays so far this season. Patel earned a top-20 finish in a tight race of 354 competitors. Taking 19th overall, Patel finished the 8K course in a time of 25:35.
“The strategy was to get out hard in the first 200 meters and then stick together for the first 5K before moving up and picking off teams,” Patel said. “All the guys did a great job getting out hard before packing up.”
The Blue Jays managed to put two other runners in the top 50: junior classmates Scott Pourshalchi and Ollie Hickson crossed the line under six seconds apart in 34th and 42nd place, respectively.
Rounding out the top five for the Jays were two freshmen, Jakob Pollack and Patrick Dye, who have made a big impact for Hopkins in their first collegiate seasons.
“We have a great group of freshmen who are crushing it and really helping push the team this season,” Patel said.
Dye, who finished out the scoring for the Jays, crossed the line in 26:26, earning him 81st place.
Impressively, all top five Blue Jays who scored finished within 51 seconds of each other, which was good enough for an eighth-place team finish in a field of 38 teams, including six teams nationally ranked in the top-10 and 19 teams ranked in the top 35.
Tuning up for the start of their postseason, the Blue Jays had the opportunity to race some of the teams they will most likely toe the line with in Principia this coming November.
With a team total of 237 points, the Blue Jays managed to finish ahead of 10th-ranked Calvin College, 15th-ranked Wartburg College and 13th-ranked University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. However, they were edged out by ninth-ranked Christopher Newport University, who finished in seventh with a team score of 224 points.
Meanwhile, the rest of the men’s team competed in New Jersey at the Rowan Inter-Regional meet, where the Jays were led to an eighth-place finish by sophomore Alex Glavin, who crossed the line in 24th-place. Hopkins finished just behind their Centennial rival, the Dickinson College Red Devils, despite half the team being at the Pre-Nats meet.
“Our goals this season are to learn from our races, stick to the race plan and trust that we will be ready when nationals roll around,” Patel said. “We are continuing to follow the training plan that [Coach] Bobby has laid out, as he knows what has been successful for the program in the past.”
At number 17, the Blue Jays remain ranked in the top 20 for the eighth straight week. However, they have fallen considerably from their program-best third-place ranking earlier this season.
On the other hand, the top-ranked women, to no one’s surprise, dominated the Pre-Nats meet. The Blue Jays took the team title, competing against 36 D-III teams with a team-total 74 points.
Leading the Jays was junior Ellie Clawson, who was neck-and-neck with Wartburg’s Ashlyn Bagge. Clawson managed to outrun Bagge by almost five full seconds, taking third place overall and completing the 6K course in 21:36.
Finishing within 15 seconds of Clawson were junior Tasha Freed, freshman Therese Olshanski and senior Caroline Smith, finishing in sixth, ninth and 11th, respectively.
Despite taking first, the Pre-Nats meet was not all smooth sailing for the Blue Jays, who were given a scare from a close second-place team, MIT, who finished in second only two points behind Hopkins. However, it is the Jays’ signature pack-running strategy that gave them their edge.
The Blue Jays’ fifth runner, junior Shaina Palmer, crossed the finish line in 46th place to secure the two-point victory over the third-ranked MIT Engineers. Hopkins also took the victory over second-ranked Washington University (Miss.) and fourth-ranked SUNY Geneseo.
Adding to the Blue Jays’ successful showing at the Pre-Nationals meet, the women also took second place at the Rowan Inter-Regional meet out of a field that included 27 teams. Junior Natalia LaSpada took the individual title by completing the 6K race in front of all 238 other runners.
LaSpada completed the 6K course in a personal-best time by four full seconds, crossing the line in 21:11. On Monday, LaSpada was named the Centennial Conference Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week.
Following LaSpada for the Blue Jays were sophomores Lauren Jacob and Allison Rosen, who finished in 14th and 24th, respectively. Beating out the Jays for the team title were the Otterbein University Cardinals, who finished with 98 points, 10 points ahead of the Jays.
Both the men and the women have a bit of downtime before heading into their first race of the championship season. On Oct. 29, the Blue Jays will head to Gettysburg College for the Centennial Conference Championships.
The women will try to defend their Conference title for the 10th straight year, while the men will try for their first team title since 2013.
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