While competing in the IC4A and ECAC championships, both the men and women, respectively, raced on the Van Cortlandt Park course in the Bronx for the fourth time this season.
And yet both squads managed to produce a flurry of personal bests, capping off the fall season in style. The men finished second in the IC4As whereas the women placed third in the ECACs.
Senior Colin Moore, as well as juniors Max King and Geoff Van Fleet, earned All-East honors for finishing in the top-fifteen. Moore, in his final cross-country race, paced the Red, clocking 25:02 for fourth place overall.
Steve McClearn came in fourth for Cornell and 34th overall.
“The first four guys ran very well,” head coach Nathan Taylor said, adding that Moore ran a “tough, smart race, and didn’t back down from the leaders.”
Place-wise, the Red’s team finish was its best effort in decades.
“It’s a big meet,” Taylor said. “Anytime you’re going up against one-sixth of the teams in the country and you finish second, you’re doing pretty well.”
Taylor also added that McClearn’s performance was terrific.
On the women’s side, another senior led the way for the Red — Meredith Freimer claimed ninth place and a spot on the All-East team. Sophomore Carlan Gray also was All-East, finishing eleventh.
Five of the Red’s top-seven recorded personal bests on the day, including freshman Jessica Parrott, who finished just two places out of All-East honors, in seventeenth.
“I thought it was a very good way for people to wrap up the season,” assistant coach Artie Smith ’96 remarked.
More importantly, perhaps, was that four freshman and one sophomore comprised a large chunk of Cornell’s top-seven.
“[The race] was a look at what the team is going to be in the [next couple of] years,” Smith said.
Now the focus for both the men and women turns to the indoor track & field season. The first meet is Dec. 2nd, but rather than competing in it, most of the cross-country runners will take a short rest and return to action after winter break.
Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj