Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams opened their respective seasons with dominating victories over Army on Saturday. The men prevailed 21-40 but were outdone by their female counterparts, who defeated Army by a margin of 18-43.
Freshman Kim Standridge led the women’s squad to victory and shattered a Cornell record in her first collegiate race, winning the 5000-meter race with a time of 18:36.6. Her time set a Cornell school record for the 5K Moakley Course layout, beating the previous mark by .3 seconds.
“I was surprised; I was totally surprised,” Standridge said.
The freshman credited teamwork as a factor in her strong performance.
“We worked really hard the past couple weeks,” she said. “It was really good to have the team there. We ran together for pretty much the whole race.”
Sophomore Stephanie Pancoast finished second in the race, clocking in at 18:40.4. Junior Marie Parks and freshman Katie Sullivan also finished in the top-5 for the Red, both finishing in just over 19 minutes. Cornell had six of the first seven and 12 of the first 15 finishers in the race.
“We definitely have a lot of depth,” Standridge said. “I think it really showed how close we are. If someone has a bad day, there’s going to be someone right there to cover up.”
Although weather conditions were not ideal, according to Standridge, the women did not let it effect them.
“It was a little rainy out and there were rough conditions,” Standridge said. “Everyone ran well anyway and wasn’t using that as an excuse.”
On the men’s side, captain Sage Canaday led the way after a brief weather delay. The senior ran five miles in 26:00:9, finishing more than 13 seconds faster than anyone else in the field.
Junior Zac Hine also had an impressive race, placing third with a time of 26:18.1. Sophomore Charlie Hatch placed fourth with a time of 26:21.4.
“I’m very, very happy with how I finished up,” Hatch said.
Five other members of the Red finished in the top-10, as freshman Adrien Dannemiller, senior Jimmy Wyner, sophomore Owen Kimple, junior Sam Luff and sophomore Kyle Wolpert finished sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively. Overall, Cornell had 10 of the top-12 finishers. According to Hatch, this race was a indicator of how deep the men’s squad is, meaning that there could be a number of runners who could contribute as the fifth and final scoring runner in any given race.
“It seems like the top three or four guys this year are going be a little bit spread out [in times], but anybody can come in at that fifth spot,” he said. “If someone has a bad race, someone else will be right there.”
Senior John Mickowski finished first for Army and second overall with a time of 26:14.1. Classmate Rob Squier placed fifth and was the only other Army runner to finish among the top-12.