In a tune-up to next week's New England Championships, the Dartmouth men's and women's cross-country teams finished first and fifth, respectively, at the Murray Keatinge Invitational, hosted by the University of Maine on Saturday in Orono, Maine.
The Big Green men had 10 finishers among the top 24, and finished with 28 points to beat out the field of eight teams, which included Yale and the University of New Hampshire.
Two-time Ivy League cross-country champion and All-American Ben True '08 won the five-mile race with a time of 23:57, nearly a minute faster than the next finisher. The race, which took place in True's home state, was his first of the year, and he certainly didn't disappoint, leading Dartmouth to its most impressive team race of the year.
This was also his first cross-country race in over two years. True did not compete last season for the Big Green squad because he was taking an off-term.
Senior Glenn Randall '09 took third in 25:02. Other top finishers for Dartmouth included John Schroeder '10, Kevin Treadway '10, Chris Zablocki '10 and Tom Robbins '11, who all were among the top-ten finishers in the race.
"We ran very well," captain Oliver Townsend '09 said. "We had finished second last year, coming in behind UNH. This year we went in [to the race] wanting to get some revenge and we ran phenomenally. If you scored all of the teams together, we still would have won. We're really excited. This puts us in a great position going forward, especially for the Ivy League championships."
On the women's side, Dartmouth finished fifth, with 103 points, out of a field of seven teams. The Big Green women did not race their full squad, though, due to illness and standardized testing commitments from some runners.
Duke University won the race with 46 points, followed by UNH, Yale and Boston College.
The top run for the Big Green came from senior captain Caitlin Cunningham '09, who finished the five-kilometer course in a time of 18:23, good enough for 10th place overall.
Other top finishers for the Dartmouth women were Marissa Greco '12, Ali Smrcina '10, Lizzie Short '12 and Amy Schuman '12.
"We did have some people who were sick, but overall, we had some good performances, especially from the freshmen," Cunningham said. "They really came through for us. It was good for us to race against nationally ranked programs, and I thought we stacked up pretty well against them. Next weekend we'll be running our full squad in two separate races [varsity and JV] so we can really see where the divide should be."
Kimberly Povec of UNH won the women's race in 18:05.
Looking forward, Dartmouth has many big races coming up. The pre-nationals race, where Dartmouth runners will truly see the competition they are up against, is in two weeks. The Heptagonals, the Ivy League championship meet, takes place on Friday, Oct. 31 in Franklin Park in Boston.
The Big Green men and women will be back in action next weekend as they head to the New England Championship on Saturday in Franklin Park.
