The Cornell men’s cross-country team opened its season campaign with an impressive win at Moakley Golf Course this past weekend. The four-team field consisted of Army, Binghamton and Marist in which the Red convincingly won 16-41, 15-50 and 15-50, respectively.
As head coach Nathan Taylor said, “This meet was an opportunity to see how successful the summer training workouts were and to see how the freshmen would perform in their first collegiate competition.”
To Taylor’s delight, the freshmen did extremely well and took the field by storm. Of the top seven finishers in the field, three were rookies.
The Red had strong showings this weekend from seniors Max King and Dan Meehan. King ran a dominating race by ousting one of the best young milers in the world from Army by almost forty seconds. Overall, King won the individual race with a dominating time of 25:38.45.
Meehan finished a close second to King with a time of 26:21. After taking a year off due to a season-ending injury last year, returning star Andy Boone ran a very conservative race and finished third with a time of 26:23. The five-mile team race turned into a dramatic finish as the Red overtook Army during the fifth mile, having trailed Army throughout the whole race.
Taylor was quite pleased on how the team kept its composure and simply wore the Army team out in the final leg of the race. Overall, the men’s cross-country team provided excitement throughout the weekend and has many people optimistic about the upcoming season. The Red will next face Boston University on September 15.
The Cornell women’s cross country team had an outstanding weekend as well by sweeping the field at the Moakley Golf Course. The Red defeated Army, Binghamton and Marist with scores of 21-40, 15-40 and 18-37, respectively.
Coach Lou Duesing was quite pleased with the overall performance and only asks that his team give its best effort. Carlan Gray led the field in the season-opener and captured first-place with a time of 19:03.20. Freshman Amber McGown ran a mature and disciplined race which earned her second place in the overall competition with a time of 19:14. Stephanie Anderson, Alyssa Simon and Aliza Cohen all ran strong races which earned them a spot in Cornell’s top five.
Duesing expressed that this was a good meet to start off the season and to prepare for the next competition at Boston University on September 15. By next weekend, the Red will have a few more workouts under its belt and will undoubtedly mature as the season progresses.
Archived article by Andrew Knauer