The Hopkins cross country team spent part of their Halloween in Gettysburg, Pa., site of the Centennial Conference Championships. Wet and muddy conditions may have deterred some runners, but the women's team emerged victorious with the gold. The men's team also had a strong day at the races, capturing the bronze.
The Jays set out to make a strong statement from the moment the gun fired. According to senior Laura Paulsen, the girls went out hard for the first 400 meters, getting ahead of their competition before settling into their packs and paces.
In honor of Halloween, the team had blue dye and sparkles in their hair. Unfortunately, brown was the prevailing color of the day, as the course was extremely muddy. This, combined with fast winds, made conditions less than ideal and slowed times down significantly.
The Jays competed against nine other schools in an 6k race (a little over 3.5 miles), involving 111 runners. Hopkins had three runners finishing behind Haverford's Emily Lipman, who won the race. Laura Paulsen finished in second place, with a time of 22:47. Sophomore Cecelia Furlong finished in third, with a time of 23:04. Senior Mira Patel finished in fourth place, with a time of 23:17.
Other finishers in the top 10 for Hopkins included freshman Liz Provost (seventh, 23:23) and senior Nadia McMillan (10th, 23:52). Senior Mary O' Grady finished behind McMillan in 11th, with a time of 24:05.
Overall, the team captured the top prize, finishing with 26 points and a record low in a Centennial Conference championship. Dickinson College finished in second with 49 points and Haverford College finished third with 85 points. Paulsen, Furlong, Patel and Provost will be first-team selections on the All-Conference team, while McMillan and O' Grady received second-team selections.
"When the gun went off, everyone had a fantastic start and so we were able to get in a good position to race," Paulsen said.
"We ended up finishing with second, third, fourth, seventh and 10th places, with an all-time low score of 26 points, which was amazing! I know some of the girls on the team felt like they didn't have a terrific race because we felt unfocused and not super-competitive, which was strange, but fortunately we were still able to win as a team."
The men's team competed against eight other schools in an 8k race, with 99 runners. Dickinson College took control of the race, slotting three runners behind race winner Greg Leak, as they captured the top four spots.
Hopkins junior Steve Tobochnik was the first Jay to cross the finish line, finishing in seventh place, with a time of 27:00.
Senior David Sigmon was not far behind, finishing ninth with a time of 27:10. Other top finishers for the men's team included senior Michael Yuan (17th, 27:42), junior Brandon Hahn (20th, 27:59) and junior Derek Cheng (23rd, 28:03).
Overall, the team finished in third place, with 68 points, also a record low Centennial Conference score for the Jays. Dickinson College easily won first with 16 points and Haverford College took second with 46 points. Tobochnik received first-team All-Conference honors, while Sigmon received second-team honors.
Both teams return Nov. 14, at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships, which is taking place at Lehigh University.
