The men competed against 37 other Division I schools in an 8K race and finished 27th. Do not let the relative final placement deceive you -- this meet was a great success.
"Twenty-six of the top 30 teams in the country ran in this meet," Coach Barry Harwick said.
The top finisher of the meet recorded a blistering average mile time of just over 4:40.
"[Saturday]'s race was by far our most competitive of the season," Kevin Treadway '10 said.
Several runners posted their best times of the year, and the team got a chance to size up its competition for the Ivy League championship in two weeks.
Captain Harry Norton '08 led the way for Dartmouth, completing the course with a time of 24:37. Glenn Randall '09 and Kevin Treadway '10 finished close behind with marks of 24:42 and 24:51, respectively.
Coach Harwick has repeated the importance of keeping the runners together in a pack formation so that they can work off one another and keep a steady pace.
"This was my fastest 8K ever," Randall said. "Harry [Norton '08] and I worked together very well. We did a great job keeping each other in the race for the entire time -- I never realized how much better a race feels if you have your teammate next to you the whole way."
Coach Harwick agreed, but also noted that there is certainly room for further improvement.
"We ran better as a pack than we have so far this season, but our spread of a full minute between our first and fifth runner was still too high," Harwick said.
The men's team now looks forward to the Ivy League Championship meet on Friday, October 26.
"Our times as a team have really been dropping this year, and hopefully we can keep it up for the championships," Randall said.
"Luckily for us almost all of the other [Ivy League] teams were competing in [Saturday]'s meet, so we're going to look at how we performed relative to them and determine how to beat them" said Treadway.
The Big Green women's squad also turned in a solid performance on Saturday in a race with many of the nation's top-ranked teams. They finished 35th of 38 teams but, as in the men's race, this should not be considered a disappointment.
"The top three finishers broke the course record," Elisa McCarthy '08 said. "It was an incredibly stacked race and I think it was great that some of the younger girls got to see what that type of race is like so early in their careers here."
Dartmouth was led by Lauren Moser '08 and Susan Dunklee '08 who posted times of 22:10 and 22:26, respectively, on the 6K course. All seven Big Green runners finished within two minutes of one another, adhering to Coach Maribel Souther's pack strategy.
"I feel like our girls worked together well, running as a unit and communicating with each other during the race," Lauren Campfield '11 said.
"I think that each of us has really started to think about what it means to race for something greater than ourselves: the team," McCarthy said.
Saturday's performance was strong despite a wave of injuries and illness that has plagued the women's team over the past several weeks.
"Four girls are recovering from stress fractures and one even raced with a fever [on Saturday]," McCarthy said.
This week the women will focus on recovery and work on running consistently for the Ivy League Championships Oct. 26.
