Men’s, Women’s Cross Country Finish Sixth at Regionals

Despite their best efforts, the men’s and women’s cross country teams both came up short in their attempts to qualify for Nationals at the NCAA Northeast Regional championships over the weekend. The Red finished in sixth place on both the men’s and women’s sides of the competition, which was hosted by Columbia at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.
Although Cornell fell short of its lofty goals, seniors Zac Hine and Marie Parks and sophomore Adrien Dannemiller earned All-Region honors by placing in the top-25 of their respective races.
The men’s team amassed 172 points en route to placing sixth in a 33-team field. Iona won the meet, while Providence finished second. Ancient Eight squads Columbia and Dartmouth finished third and fourth, respectively. Syracuse finished just ahead of Cornell in fifth place.
“We were looking to place a few spots higher, but overall the guys ran pretty well,” Hine said. “We put forth a good effort. We don’t have any control over how the other teams run.”
Hine led the way for Cornell by completing the 10K course in 32:07.8. That time earned him the 12th best finish overall in a field that included 239 runners.[img_assist|nid=33649|title=Into the wilderness|desc=The men’s and women’s cross country teams both finished sixth at Regionals, failing to qualify for Nationals.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
“It’s the best finish I’ve had at Regionals in my career,” he said. “I made All-Region and to most people that’s really good. I was disappointed though, because I was just a few spots away from making it to Nationals, which has been a goal of mine.”
Dannemiller also earned All-Region honors by placing 20th in the race. Senior Sam Luff finished third for the Red and 43rd overall. Junior Pete Loy and sophomore Nate Edelman finished just behind Luff, claiming 47th place and 50th place, respectively. Senior Andy Miller and junior Hassan Shalla both finished in the top 65, however their scores did not contribute to the team score because they finished outside of the team’s top-5.
Like the men, the women placed sixth on the strength of five runners finishing in the top-50. Cornell finished between Ivy foes Columbia (fifth) and Harvard (seventh). Providence and Syracuse earned automatic bids to Nationals by finishing first and second, respectively, while Boston College and Stony Brook were the other schools to finish ahead of Cornell.
“I think overall, we did a good job,” said junior Stephanie Pancoast. “It was one of our better races of the season. We could have done better, but I was happy with our performance.”
Senior Marie Parks set the pace for Cornell and finished 16th overall. Pancoast finished eleven seconds too late to earn All-Region honors, but still clocked in 34th. Senior captain Aeriel Emig placed 42nd in her final Regional meet. Classmate Fiona Cundy was 48th, just one spot ahead of rookie Meghan Brown.
Sophomore Maura Carroll and senior Danielle Schaub also competed at the meet which featured 247 runners. Parks’ time of 22:05.04 almost allowed her to qualify individually for Nationals, but was not quite fast enough.
“I was more disappointed at first [about not qualifying], but when I found out I had run pretty well, I realized it’s better to have the team have a good outcome than to just have one or two really good races,” Parks said.
The cross country season wraps up next weekend when the men participate in the IC4As while the women compete in the ECAC championships.