This past weekend the men's and women's cross country teams competed in their season-ending meet at the Heptagonal Championship which pitted the squads against the Ivy League and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Both squads went into Van Cortlandt Park at Columbia with expectations of victory, but the women emerged with a second place finish while the men came in third.
The women, second overall behind powerhouse Cornell, placed two runners in the top five, with Meegan Larsen '95 and Maribel Sanchez '96 coming in third and fourth, respectively. Captain Tori Knox '94 and junior Kristin Cobb were next in twelfth and thirteenth place. In the final standings, Dartmouth trailed Cornell by only 17 points while easily breezing past Princeton and Navy.
"We're thrilled about our finish," Coach Ellen O'Neil said. "We ran according to plan. We hoped that [Cornell] would stumble a bit but they didn't."
"Our goal was top three," Larsen said, "and the race was a big improvement over last year's fifth place."
Knox added that Cornell "really put together a good race" and pointed out that Dartmouth's finish was "better than we've done since I've been here. I think that people were just more excited about the race than last year."
As the team comes off Heps, it changes gears toward qualifying for Nationals. With the Eastern qualifying rounds approaching in two weeks, O'Neil looks ahead with confidence and anticipation.
"We're definitely looking forward to our meet. To qualify for Nationals, a team has to place in the top two in its district. Our toughest competition will come from Providence, but teams can surprise other teams in a meet of this magnitude."
Despite Dartmouth's loss to Providence earlier this season, O'Neil and her runners don't feel threatened.
"We have to be ready to go," O'Neil said. "I think we'll have to take it one step at a time."
As the men's squad emerges from Heps with a solid third place finish, the team cannot help but show its disappointment despite a second place finish by Sam Wilbur '94 with Co-Captain Ted FitzPatrick '95 right behind him in fourth.
"We were a little disappointed," Co-Captain Derek West '94 said. "We had a few good races up front, but overall we wanted to win. Third is certainly respectable, but we should have been closer to first."
The Big Green finished behind Cornell and was edged out by Brown by a single point.
"Cornell ran really well," Wilbur added. "They ran much better than we thought they would. I don't know what happened."
Coach Barry Harwick saw positive signs and added that "we got outstanding races from Wilbur and FitzPatrick. They raced very competitively and our frontrunning was a big boost for us."
He added that the team's focus now switches to the IC4As where the squad will compete in qualifying rounds for Nationals. With teams like Brown, Boston University and the University of Connecticut in the same district, the Big Green looks to rebound.
FitzPatrick noted that the Nationals course "will be 6.2 miles instead of 5 miles, making the race that much more challenging, but I believe the longer distance will benefit Dartmouth which does better in a strength-type race."
"Between us and the other teams, BU is the favorite," Wilbur said, "but we can definitely beat Brown and UConn," as the top two teams head to Nationals.
