Fresh off a bye weekend, the second-ranked women's cross country team finished first out of 25 teams at the Oberlin College Inter-Regional Rumble on Saturday in Oberlin, Ohio.
The men's team also fared well, earning an eighth place finish out of 28 schools. Both teams raced despite cold and wintry weather conditions.
According to Coach Bobby Van Allen, the bye weeks have been a big help to the teams this season.
"The week off prior to this last meet was all a part of the overall season plan," Van Allen said. "We don't race more than two weekends in a row at any point, which helps keep us sharp physically and focused mentally for when we do compete."
For the women, who ran six kilometers, the Jays had five runners place in the top 20 positions, easily securing a first place victory with 62 points. The next closest team was Case Western Reserve with 105 points, with Oberlin, NYU and SUNY Brockport rounding out the top five.
All-American and four time News-Letter Athlete of the Week Laura Paulsen led the way once again for the Jays, finishing second overall with a time of 21:37, 34 seconds behind first place finisher Joanna Johnson of Oberlin.
Alongside Paulsen, the other four of Hopkins' top five were equally strong, all finishing within 45 seconds of Paulsen. Sophomore Cecilia Furlong finished eighth with a time of 21:58, senior Mira Patel finished thirteenth at 22:02, junior Christina Valerio finished nineteenth at 22:19, and freshman Liz Provost finished 20th at 22:20. Seniors Mary O'Grady and Nadia McMillan also placed in the top 35.
"Our packs are something we really try to focus on" Van Allen said. "It doesn't do us any good though if we're running in one big pack slower than what each individual is capable of."
After finishing 15th as a team in their previous meet, Paulsen felt the week off helped the Jays performance, despite the poor course conditions.
"The week off was definitely nice. It gave us time to get in some good workouts while also taking a break from the mental and physical stress of racing" Paulsen said. "The course was really flat and was supposed to be very fast, but unfortunately the weather was pretty terrible. It rained the day before the race and on the day of the meet it was raining and cold. This made the course really muddy and difficult to run on - in places it was like running in sand."
Out of all 25 school's competing on the women's side, Hopkins was the only one with more than three runners in the top twenty, and only one other squad, Oberlin, was able to place four runners in even the top 30 spots.
The men's team, ranked 31st in the nation among Division III schools, placed eighth out of 28 teams in their eight kilometer race. NYU won the team title with 53 points, with Alleghany, Carnegie Mellon, St. Thomas and Elizabethtown placing second through fifth. The Jays finished with 225 total points.
Junior Steve Tobochnik, the winner of the Centennial Conference men's runner of the week award two weeks ago, finished first for the Blue Jays, 30th overall, with a time of 25:54. The top-five Blue Jays all finished with 26 seconds of each other; senior David Sigmon finished 40th at 26:05, junior Derek Chang in 46th at 26:08, junior Brandon Han in 54th at 26:20, and senior Mike Yuan in 55th at 26:20.
This was the final tune-up for the Blue Jays before they head to the Centennial Conference Championships on October 31 at Gettysburg.
