Nearing the end of their season, the Johns Hopkins Men's and Women's Cross Country team raced in the Triton Classic in San Diego, California this past Saturday. The only East Coach team among a highly competitive field of 17, the men placed 11th. The women earned a 10th place finish out of 20. UCLA won the men's 8K, earning 52 points and narrowly beating out Orange Coast with 53 points. Hopkins received a score of 283 points on the men's side.
Sophomore Gabe Tonkin paced the Blue Jays with a time of 27:55, earning him 68th place overall.
"The team has been really coming together lately," said Tonkin. "We only have one more meet between now and conferences, but I think we can still drop a good deal of time, individually and as a team."
Behind Tonkin was freshman Travis Koh in 78th, finishing in 28:08. Sophomore Jason Farber finished in 28:29, good for an 88th place finish, followed by freshman Jason Chiang. Right behind Chiang was sophomore Andrew Bauerschmidt in 92th.
"Coming through the first mile of the 5-mile race in 5:12, I knew it was going to be a rough race. I still ended up getting a [personal record], and that felt great" said Bauerschmidt. He finished the race with a time of 28:37.
"It was the first time any of these guys had broken 29 minutes on the season, so to see all five of them under 29 minutes was definitely a nice improvement, and bodes well for the remainder of the season," said head coach Bobby Van Allen. "We're definitely peaking at the right time. We have always come together strong as a team at the right time, and this performance really showed me that we have what it takes to do well at our conference championships in two weeks."
For the women, the slightly larger field of twenty schools left them in twelfth place with 329 points, coming in just ahead of Redlands' 333 points. UCLA also won the women's division with 60 points, beating out UC Irvine, which finished with 62 points.
"Our strength of the women's team is our depth, and everyone in our top seven could be our number one runner on any given day," said Van Allen.
Leading the way for Hopkins was sophomore Gloria Vasconcellos in 57th place with a time of 24:53 for the 6K race. Right behind her was freshman Jessica Lozzier in 24:55 for a 60th place finish. Senior Anna Stirgwolt earned 87th place overall, with her time of 25:49, while senior Laura Vernikoff followed Stirgwolt in 95th with a time of 26:05.
Members of the team who did not head to San Diego competed in the Goucher Invitational where the women finished sixth out of seven schools with 136 points. The men finished sixth out of nine schools with 44 points.
Freshman Christine Medina finished the 5K in 21:59, pacing the Lady Jays. Her performance earned her 20th. Freshman teammate Andrea Christman and sophomore Eva Nieder finished 28th and 29th with times of 22:36 and 22:37, respectively.
The Hopkins men also fared well, with four top 40 finishes. The Jays were led by senior Alex Gochal, who's time of 30:39 ranked him 27th over all, followed by freshman Sam Olesky's 30th place finish with a time of 30:57. Senior Andy Myers finished in 31:51, good for 29th, and freshman Joe Kim placed 40th with his time of 32 minutes even.
"It was a difficult course, but as a team, we ran well" said Kim.
Up next for the entire Cross Country team will be a meeting against conference rival Gettysburg College at the Gettysburg Invitational on Saturday.
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