Seniors Ben True '08 and Glenn Randall '09 competed at the 2008 NCAA Cross Country Championships last Monday in Terre Haute, Ind., marking the end of two storied Dartmouth cross country careers.
True finished the 10-kilometer race in 53rd with a time of 30:30. Randall was not far behind him, taking 61st place in 30:34.
Oregon senior Galen Rupp won the race in 29:04. His team also finished first ahead of Iona in the team championships. Iona won the NCAA Northeast Regional Race two weeks ago. The Big Green men finished fourth in that race out of 36 teams.
"Working with Ben and Glenn has been great for all four years, and in Ben's case, five years!" said coach Barry Harwick '77 in an e-mail. "They set a great example to the team and also set a really high standard for next year's team to live up to."
For True and Randall, this race ended their standout collegiate cross country careers.
True finished his career at Dartmouth as one of the best cross country runners in College and Ivy League history. He individually won three Ivy Heptagonal titles in four years, becoming the first runner to do so in over a quarter century. He also holds the all-time Heps record after finishing the five-mile Van Cortlandt Park course this year in a time of 23:59.
Van Cortlandt Park, located in New York City's Bronx has been the home of the Heptagonal Championships for each of the last 50 years, except for 1979 when the race was held at Lehigh University, making True's accomplishment all the more meaningful.
Randall also had a phenomenal final season for the Big Green. He won the Dartmouth Invitational, finished third at the Keating Invitational, and finished in the top 10 at NCAA regionals, qualifying for the national championships.
Both True and Randall received All-Ivy recognition for their respective performances at Heps.
"I think this season Ben and Glenn provided a substantial boost to the team's confidence, knowing that our 1-2 guys were going to be right up there with the other top teams' lead runners," teammate Chris Zablocki '10 said. "They are also good examples when we are training, whether it is Glenn going for 20-mile long runs or Ben doing an hour of core and stretching after practice every day. They're talented, but they are also dedicated."
In addition to being cross country stars, True and Randall both excel as three-season athletes, also competing in Nordic skiing and track.
Randall won the NCAA Men's Cross Country Skiing Championship last winter, while True joined the elite group of runners that have run sub-four-minute miles in 2007.
"Ben and Glenn are two of the best competitors we have had on the cross country team in my 17 years at Dartmouth," Harwick said. "The fact that they are both also outstanding skiers is really somewhat unusual. I think that has helped them both because they are extremely strong by distance running standards."
Both True and Randall will now turn their focus to the upcoming ski season. The United States National Cross Country Championships is the team's first event of the season, slated for Jan. 3 in Anchorage, Ala.
