Cornell’s men’s and women’s cross country teams both finished third at the Paddy Doyle Iona Meet of Champions this Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. On the women’s side, Boston College placed first, followed by Boston University. For the men’s teams, Dartmouth and Princeton were the only teams to top the Red.
Dartmouth’s Tom Mcardle won the men’s 8,000-meter race in a time of 24:42.9 with Cornell’s Max King following in second place with a time of 24:44.9. Bruce Hyde came in 16th in a time of 25:27.6, followed by Dan Dombroski (25:34.6) in 23rd, Andy Boone (25:43.1) in 26th, and Dan Meehan (25:49.6) in 34th to round out the Red’s top five.
For the women, Cate Guiney of Boston College finished in first with a time of 20:05.2. She was followed by sister and teammate Megan Guiney with a time of 20:43.1. Lena Matthews led the way for Cornell, finishing eighth overall in a time of 21:02.8. Amber McGown placed 16th overall, with Carlan Gray and Kate Boyles finishing 23rd and 25th, respectively. Jessica Parrott was fifth for the Red, taking 46th place overall.
Men’s coach Nathan Taylor had mixed words about his team’s results.
“We had a solid performance,” he said. “It wasn’t exceptional, but it was solid. I don’t think anybody was fully pleased with how we ran, but it was still a good meet.”
Taylor continued, “Max [King] ran very well. He really leads this team. He sets the example on this team, other kids follow his example, which is exceptional.”
With the loss of senior Geoff Van Fleet for at least most of the season due to an Achilles’ injury, the Red have had to find runners to jump into his role.
Taylor continued, “Losing Geoff has been huge, and other guys have stepped up to fill his shoes. The whole team has been part of that.”
On the women’s side, head coach Lou Duesing was impressed with the team’s effort against such a tough field.
“The team hasn’t run this well in a long time,” he said. “We were competing, taking risks and pushing limits in every respect. Every time we passed somebody, it ended up being huge. We beat Yale by one point. The effort was exceptional.”
Speaking of individual accomplishments, Duesing said, “It’s easy to point to the top five and say how well they ran, but our whole team ran well today. It was to the point where I almost didn’t care what place we were in because we competed so well.”
“We just ran a terrific race against a highly competitive field,” he continued. “The effort by Jessica Parrot and Kate Boyles to pass girls in the last 400 meters turned out to be huge. And from here, we just have to get hungrier and more determined.”
Duesing added words of caution to praise.
“Now is not the time to rest on our laurels,” he said, “We have to continue to have the determination and attitude that got us here. It was a good sign that we weren’t intimidated coming in here.”
Both teams look to improve on their performances on October 13th when they attend the Pre-National Meet in Greenville, S.C.
Duesing had parting words for his young team.
“Mentally, they are focused on the end of the season, but we’re not there yet. This was a positive performance, but how they respond to it is up to them.”
Archived article by Matt Nassr