In the final tune-up before this Friday’s Heptagonal Championships, the men’s and women’s cross country teams both performed extremely well at the John Reif Memorial Run, which took place at Moakley Course last Friday.
The top runners on both sides sat out this meet, giving some of the other members of the teams a chance to run in the front of the pack as opposed to the middle of it.
Men’s coach Nathan Taylor said, “One of the objectives of this meet is to let the coaches see what a couple of guys could really do.”
On the women’s side, Cornell claimed the top 20 spots, led by freshman Kari Haus, who finished the five-kilometer race in first with a time of 19:03. Freshman Alyssa Simon (19:21) and sophomore Larissa Bifano (19:22) also performed very well.
Women’s head coach Lou Duesing was pleased with his team’s performance.
“It really delivers a message to the whole team, it demonstrates that their hard work pays off,” he said.
For the men, sophomore Taylor Dewey was victorious in the five-kilometer race with a time of 16:27, followed by freshmen Sam MacKenzie (16:35) and Oliver Tassinari (16:36). In the men’s five-mile race, senior Brook Dannemiller placed first after battling heavy competition throughout the entire race. His most serious pursuers were teammates sophomore Mike Sinkevich and freshman Vasanth Coorg, who placed second and third in the race respectively. All three will be competing in the Heps this Friday.
Duesing explained that the Reif Memorial serves an important purpose in preparing for the remainder of the season. Because the team of 12 that Cornell will taking to Heps this season is smaller than in past years, this meet is an important one in determining who will fill the last few spots in the lineup.
Taylor believes that Cornell will field a very strong lineup on Friday.
“I don’t think there is anyone who is as deep as we are,” he said.
The Gampelan
The plan for the Heps will be to start conservatively in order to finish very strongly. The Red also hopes that this will enable it to overtake competitors who “might have gone out a little overzealously” according to Taylor.
The Heps are held annually at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.
Archived article by Owen Bochner