During the NCAA Northeast Regional this Saturday in New York City, the men’s cross-country team’s problems began even before the race started.
Just as the Red was gathering on the starting line, junior Max King stepped in a hole and sprained his ankle.
Though he taped up his leg, King — Cornell’s best runner — was nonetheless hampered by the injury and finished a disappointing 42nd overall in the competition, clocking 32:35.3 for the 10,000 meter course.
And more importantly, the incident demoralized the squad and dashed its hopes of advancing to the NCAA Championship race.
“There was a sense that we weren’t going to do so well,” head coach Nathan Taylor said, on the immediate reaction following King’s mishap.
In the end, Cornell finished ninth in the region, well below what it was seeded.
“They’re very disappointed,” Taylor assessed. “They knew they could have done better and knew they should have done better.”
Placing first for the Red was senior Colin Moore, who finished 24th overall in a time of 32:11.5 — good enough for a spot on the All-Regional Team.
“Colin had a terrific race,” Taylor noted.
Junior Geoff Van Fleet was third on the squad, coming in 53rd at 32:53.1. Senior Geoff King (73rd, 33:09.5), freshman John Corley (74th, 33:09.5), sophomore Dan Dombrowski (75th, 33:11.3), and Steve McLearn (77th, 33:13.3) rounded out the Red’s team.
Providence, Iona, and Dartmouth took the top three team spots in the race.
On the women’s side, there was also a sense of lingering disappointment, as senior Kim Chatman finished 20th in 21:19.2, only .7 of a second out of a spot in the NCAA Championship race.
“Kim put herself into a position to qualify,” head coach Lou Duesing said. “With about 800 meters to go, she was in.”
Last year, Chatman made it the championship race.
“I knew she really wanted to go back and she’s obviously quite disappointed,” Duesing added.
Cornell, seeded seventh going into the race, lived up to expectations.
Senior Meredith Freimer finished second for the Red (25th overall) in 21:24.2 for 6000 meters.
“Kim and Meredith ran much better than they had at Heps,” Duesing said.
BC, Yale, and Brown paced the team competition.
Junior Lena Mathews (36th, 21:46.0), sophomore Carlan Gray (58th, 22:12.3), freshman Jessica Parrott (65th, 22:17.7), classmate Stephanie Anderson (68th 22:21.5), and Halle Watson (80th, 22:37.1) finished off the Red’s complement of runners.
Next week, league competitions are in store for the Red — the men go to IC4As while the women travel to ECACs.
Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj