Dartmouth's cross country teams were in split-squad action this weekend, but still had enough manpower on each team to leave the competition in the dust. Dartmouth's men placed second in both Maine's Murray Keatinge Invitational and at the Keene State Invitational, while the women took third at Keatinge and first at Keene.
Held in Orono, Maine, the Keatinge Invitational, drew teams from all over the country, most notably nationally ranked No. 5 Stanford and No. 10 Iowa. Undaunted, Dartmouth runners stepped up to meet the challenge, with their final score of 49 topping that of Iowa and earning second place behind Stanford.
The top three runners for Dartmouth and Stanford were fairly evenly matched as both teams split the top six places, with Ben True '08 snapping the tape in an exciting finish, coming across in first with a time of 23:59.10.
"Beating Iowa, who was ranked 10th in the country, should get us some well-deserved recognition," said men's coach Barry Harwick '77. "Ben True's win was extremely exciting to see since it came down to the last 100 meters of the race."
When asked to talk about the race, True refused to turn the spotlight on his stellar individual performance and sang the praises of the whole team. "In beating Iowa, it shows that we are among the top teams in the nation," he said. "This just means that we are becoming a very strong team and one that should get some recognition on the national level."
Alec Wall '07 took third overall with a time of 24:07.10 and Dave Burnham '06 came in sixth in 24:14.30. Ian Marcus '07 and Glenn Randall '09 rounded out Dartmouth's top five with 17th and 22nd place finishes, respectively.
The women also enjoyed a strong race, with their 84 points good for third, behind No. 4 Stanford's 25 and Boston College's 42.
Melanie Schorr '06 led the way for the women in green, finishing fifth in 17:05.80. Hilary Dionne '07 rounded out the top ten with a time of 17:31.70.
Susan Dunklee '08 finished right on the heels of her teammate, tied for 11th in 17:34.30, while newcomers Anna Greskovich '09 and Aryn Gruneisen '09 completed the scoring by finishing 32nd and 35th, respectively.
While Dartmouth's first varsity teams enjoyed successful races, the second varsity teams fared just as well competing in the Keene State Invitational in Keene, New Hampshire.
The women took first in a field of seven with 41 points, blowing past second-place Keene State's 53.
Susan Abramczyk '06 set the pace for her teammates, taking fourth in 19:29.
Four rookie runners completed the scoring for the Big Green. Natalie Todd-Zebel '09 finished sixth in 19:51; Kathleen Rice '09 took seventh in 19:55; Kristin Fladseth '09 placed 11th in 20:06; and Julie Plevin '09 was 13th in 20:13.
The second varsity men took second out of nine teams with 49 points. The host Owls won with a final tally of 31.
Grant Allen '08 was the top finisher for Dartmouth's men, taking fourth with a time of 26:19.
Again the freshmen rounded out the top five, as Vinny Olsen '09 took seventh in 26:42; Andrew Han '09 finished 12th in 27:01; Hari Iyer '09 was 13th in 27:02; and Joe Friedman '09 finished 16th in 27:20.
"A lot of our guys at Keene are freshmen and it was their first collegiate race, so for them it was a great place to get started," said Allen. "I was particularly pleased with my fourth place finish this weekend as it puts me in a perfect position to capture the coveted Denny's Cup Challenge.
"The depth of our program is pretty clear when you see that we could run full rosters at two places on the same day and beat a lot of successful programs with good runners while doing so."
Dartmouth's strong performances would seem to be an indication of good things to come at the New England Championship next weekend.
The men are planning to put on a show of the team's depth, aiming to finish well this weekend without using the team's seven best runners.
"We are not going to race our top seven guys at the New Englands," said Harwick. "We leave the next Thursday for the NCAA pre-meet in Indiana and I need to have them rested for that."
The meet also has implications for intra-team standings, as the meet will help determine who gets to round out the squad of 12 that will run at the Heptagonal Championship later this month.
The New England Championship will be held at Boston's Franklin Park on Saturday, Oct. 8, and the NCAA pre-meet will be held at Indiana State on Oct. 15.
