XC flexes muscle at NCAA Regionals

The Hopkins men’s and women’s cross country teams reached new heights this year with their results this past Saturday at the 2012 NCAA Mid-East Regional Championship. On the men’s side, the Hopkins cross country team reached a program record with their third-place finish on Saturday morning. Hopkins finished with 110 points, 19 ahead of Dickinson (129), who had recently defeated the Blue Jays for second place at the Centennial Conference Championship two weeks ago. With 63 points, Haverford seized the regional title and placed three runners in the top 10. Carnegie Mellon took second (92 points), followed by Hopkins, Dickinson and Allegheny to round out the top five. On Sunday, Hopkins received an at large bid, securing their spot in the NCAA Championship on November 17 in Terre Haute, IN. Junior Max Robinson’s performance with a career-best seventh-place finish has automatically qualified him for the NCAA Championship. Earning a bronze medal at the Centennial Conference Championship just a few weeks earlier, Robinson crossed the line in 25:30.2. He is the first JHU runner to place in the top 10 at the regional since John Robinson won the event in 1991. Hopkins’ second through sixth finishers finished in a bunch, with just 19 seconds separating them. This fact pushed the men’s cross country team to its third-place finish as the Blue Jays had four runners finish before Dickinson’s third runner crossed the line. Placing 21st, 24th and 27th respectively, junior Julian Saliani, senior Josh Baker and sophomore Austin Stecklair finished closely together. Saliani earned all-region honors with a time of 26:04.5. Baker followed just one and a half seconds behind Saliani, as he crossed the line in 26:06.0 to place a career-best 24th and earn all-region accolades. Stecklair placed next for the Jays, as he landed in 27th place with a time of 26:13.2. His time has earned him all-region accolades for the second straight year, after finishing 34th as a freshman in 2011. Freshman Schaffer Ochstein, the 2012 Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year, rounded out Hopkins’ scorers with a time of 26:16.9, finishing in 31stplace. Senior Josh Budman placed 36th with a time of 26:23.5. Junior Andrew Carey wrapped up the field for Hopkins as he ran a time of 27:18.7 to placed 78th. While the Blue Jays had previously placed three on the NCAA All-Mid-East team in 2007 and 2011, Hopkins' five all-region selections are a program record. This also marks the third time since 2007 that Hopkins has had a freshman earn all-region honors. The second-ranked Lady Blue Jay’s cross country team captured its fifth consecutive NCAA Division III Mid-East Regional Championship title as freshman star Hannah Oneda cruised to her fifth win of the season. The victory secured the women’s team a sixth-straight appearance in the NCAA Championship. Finishing with 63 team points, Hopkins placed six runners in the top-25. This performance sets a program regional meet record. Haverford was seventeen points behind the Blue Jays with 79 points, while Dickinson finished third with 126 points. Oneda is just the second regional champion in Hopkins history, joining Cecilia Furlong who accomplished the feat in 2010. The rookie led a field of 346 runners to cross the tape in 21:34.7, six seconds ahead of second-place finisher Kristen Galligan of Washington & Jefferson. In addition to Oneda, five other runners earned All-Mid-East Region honors, as Holly Clarke (5th/22:17), Annie Monagle (11th/22:39), Lara Shegoski (22nd/23:05), Sophie Meehan (24th/23:14) and Frances Loeb (25th/23:18) joined Oneda. Junior standout Clarke provided insight into the Lady Blue Jay’s season and what lies ahead at the National Championships. “Our team is really young.  Our best runner is a freshman right now. We have one senior, two juniors, and the rest are underclassman,” Clarke said. “I believe this shows how much we can improve this year and for years to come. Last year we finished 15th and Hannah Eckstein and I earned All-American honors and hoped to have a better showing. This year, I am confident that if we run the perfect race we can beat MIT.” Clarke also explained that the team has started to tapper in efforts to be rested and improve on last year’s showing. “The whole season we’ve been doing 60-70 mile weeks,” she said. “Now each day has been getting shorter and less rigorous as coach wants us to peak in Indiana. We now are doing 40 mile weeks.” Hopkins will fight for the national championship next weekend as it races against the best teams in the nation at the NCAA Division III National Championship Meet in Terre Haute, IN.