The Hopkins men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Boston this past Friday to compete in the Boston College Coast-to-Coast Invitational. The men’s team took home a respectable 14th place with 408 points, while the women’s side finished 16th with 389 points. It was an admirable showing for both sides, who were facing some of the steepest competition they will meet all season.
The men’s side competition was won by the third-ranked Oregon Ducks, who finished with 24 points. Rounding out the top five were eighth-ranked Syracuse, 16th-ranked Providence, Georgetown and Dartmouth. Michigan won the women’s side by tallying 55 points, while fifth-ranked Georgetown, 15th-ranked Syracuse, host team Boston College, and 25th-ranked Dartmouth completed the top five finishers. The Jays were the only non-Division I program at the event, and both teams will surely look to build on their successes from this opening tune-up.
The men’s team was paced by senior Austin Stecklair, who led all Hopkins finishers with a time of 25:48. When asked to comment on the team’s performance at the meet, Stecklair was noticeably disappointed with the result, but was also confident that the Jays could draw many positives from their performance.
“It was a lot of fun going up to Boston and getting to compete against some very high-caliber teams,” Stecklair said. “As a team, we did a great job of getting off the line, but we settled in a little too early and ended up running farther back in the pack than we should have. A lot of guys on the team did a great job competing, but the times were a little slow. That being said, it’s still very early in the season, and we’ll get another chance to compete with some great teams this weekend at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh.”
The Jays’s second place finisher, senior Andrew Ceruzzi, echoed similar sentiments concerning the squad’s performance in Boston. “As a team, we were pretty disappointed with our finish and would have liked to have finished in the top ten overall,” he said. “We got caught behind too many teams early in the race and did not establish great position in the first mile. Individually, I was happy to run 18 seconds faster than I did last year on this course, but I would have liked to be much faster. We’re hoping to get our top seven under 25:30, and hopefully we can accomplish that at the next meet.”
The men’s team obviously has their sights set on greatness this season, and Ceruzzi and his teammates will be looking to continue shaving precious seconds off of their times at subsequent competitions.
An incredibly fast break off the line caused some problems for the Lady Jays, but the team showed incredible amounts of poise and determination to keep battling and remain competitive. Senior Frances Loeb led all Hopkins entrants with a time of 18:06, while freshman Bridget Gottlieb also impressed with a time of 18:13. Although Gottlieb was still competing at the high school level only a few short months ago, she was unfazed by the enormity and grandeur of the college atmosphere.
“It was one of the largest cross country races I’ve ever competed in,” she said. “The race never separated out, so it was challenging running with just so many other people for the entire race. I wasn’t the happiest with my time, but I think that was just the course, as I was happy with how I raced.”
The women’s team has embraced Gottlieb and the other freshman runners, and it is evident that the squad is already meshing as a cohesive support system.
“The team is incredibly welcoming and supportive, and it’s been nice having a whole group of people to get advice from regarding college cross country, and Hopkins in general,” Gottlieb said.
Sophomore runner and third place finisher Tess Meehan posted a time of 18:30 overall. She continues to place well while setting the bar high for every race, and it is evident that she expects great things from her teammates for the rest of the season.
“I think we are really just looking forward to improv[ing] all of our times and our overall team performance this week at Paul Short and especially later in the season as we get into conferences, regionals and nationals,” she said.
This upcoming weekend, both the men’s and women’s teams head to Lehigh University where they look to build off their successes against the stiffest D-I competition in the country at the Paul Short Invitational.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.