After capturing the first Centennial Conference title in Hopkins history last season, the men’s cross country team was right back on track, beginning the season with two dominant wins.
Last Friday, the team competed in the Baltimore Metro Invitational, staying in command throughout the race to pull out an outstanding win.
The Blue Jays set out with a plan to run as a strong pack for the first half of the race and pick up the pace aggressively in the second half, and they executed perfectly, with three runners finishing in the top five.
Freshman Geoffrey Kazlow had an exceptional race in his collegiate debut, pulling away with the individual win.
“I wasn’t expecting to win on Friday, but I felt good with a mile to go so I decided to push it, and I was able to hold on for the win,” Kazlow said.
Senior Mitchell Silver and freshman Marshall Demaree rounded out the top three Hopkins runners, finishing second and fourth, respectively. Senior Chanon Tuntivate overcame his past nagging injuries to finish seventh.
“This was my first race in a long time where I really felt in control through most of the race,” Tuntivate said.
Freshman John McMullin followed right behind, coming in at eighth. The Blue Jays managed to stick to their game plan, keeping the runners almost within thirty seconds of each other.
Saturday, Hopkins participated in the Salisbury Fall Classic and maintained its dominance. The Blue Jays stuck to the same game plan of running in a close pack.
“I thought we ran very smart today and stuck to the plan,” said Head Coach Bobby Van Allen. “Everybody understands it’s very early in the season, and those first few miles were used to work on the fundamentals before going all out.”
With five Blue Jays finishing in the top six, Hopkins showed great promise for the rest of the season. According to senior captain Andrew Ceruzzi, this meet was focused on keeping depth and consistency among runners.
“It was nice to have five in the top six, but this meet was not very important to us,” Ceruzzi said, leading by example with his first collegiate win. “More important was that we had a very solid 15-second spread through our top five guys.”
Ceruzzi, along with fellow captains senior Austin Stecklair and junior Schaffer Ochstein, plans on leading this year’s team to a successful season. Stecklair finished right behind Ceruzzi in second, with Ochstein also posting a time of 25:55.23 to come in fourth.
Senior Ryan Alvarez, who finished fifth, had one of the best performances of his career.
Sophomore Stefan Arnold and freshman Panth Patel also had strong races, coming in sixth and ninth, respectively.
The Blue Jays recognize that this year’s team is one of the strongest in Hopkins history and plan on making the most of this opportunity.
“As a team, the goal is a national championship,” Kazlow said. “It’s months away but we’re all working hard every day to reach that goal.”
The team just had the most successful season in history, winning the conference championship and finishing eleventh at Nationals, but is determined to repeat its success and then bring a national championship to Hopkins.
What may have once been a dream is increasingly becoming a reality. The team was ranked seventh in the preseason and, with the work the Blue Jays put in during the summer, even that may have been too low.
With this extremely motivated group, Hopkins hopes to be in position to compete nationally. Alvarez has full confidence the team will reach this goal.
“As a team we’re focusing on keeping a tight pack and putting ourselves in the position we need to be to place top five at Nationals.”
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