The Dartmouth men's and women's cross country teams continued to compete in strong fashion, finishing fourth and eighth respectively at the Mayor's Cup in Boston on Sunday. The men's team finished with 153 points, while the women finished with 323 points.
"We were on the same course two weeks ago at the New England Championships," men's coach Barry Harwick said. "It was quite impressive to see the improvements some of the guys made they ran very well. Steve Mangan [14] ran very well in 25:17, he knocked 40 seconds off his time in the space of two weeks."
Jake Shoemaker '12 and Mike Danaher '13 also made improvements with their race times, Harwick added.
The Big Green rested their top 12 runners of each team this week.
On the women's side, Melanie Wilcox '13 finished first for the Big Green with a time of 19:12 and 55th overall, while teammate Christina Supino '12 finished 60th with a time of 19:25.
"Mayor's Cup was different from two weeks ago in that even though we raced the same course there were a lot of sponsored club teams, like the Greater Boston Running Club, but it wasn't as crowded this week," Wilcox said. "It definitely started fast and was definitely really competitive. It's a fast course, especially the first mile. Great conditions too."
The Mayor's Cup was the last major race for the Big Green before the Ivy Heptagonals Cross Country Championships, which will be on Oct. 29 in New York City. The race has been at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for 66 of the past 69 years.
The top 12 runners on the men's team had a comparably difficult week in practice this past week, training hard for the Ivy Championships.
"Last week we worked very hard, we did a particularly hard workout on Friday," Harwick said. "The week of competition is very light we're going light Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday we'll jog the course just to know where everything is, and Friday is it."
While some teams may have difficulty negotiating the hills of Van Cortland Park, Harwick said that one of Dartmouth's advantages is the terrain surrounding the College.
"We're not doing anything specific [to prepare]," Harwick said. "It is very hilly, but I think that one of our advantages is that we do a lot of training on hills and trails around our area and that works to our advantage."
Harwick said he is not particularly concerned about a team strategy during the race.
"Each can only bring 12 runners, so there is a maximum of 96 people," he said. "I want our top runners [Phil Royer '13] and [Ethan Shaw '12] to finish in the top 10, so it's important that they establish their position early."
The entire race can be determined in the back hills of the course, women's interim head coach Mark Coogan said in an interview with Ivy League coaches about the upcoming meet.
"I love the anticipation of waiting by the bridge for the lead pack to come out of the back hills," Coogan said. "It is only a few minutes but the race can be determined back there and virtually no sees it. The loop in the back hills is only about 2,000 meters long but the pack essentially all crosses the bridge to go in within 15 seconds of each other. When they come out, the field is completely strung out."
Dartmouth has a strong tradition of performing well at Van Cortlandt Park the current course record is held by Dartmouth's Ben True '08, who finished the five-mile race in a time of 23:59.6.
On the men's side, Princeton University leads Ivy contenders with an 18th overall ranking of D-I colleges in the nation, according to the most recent US Track and Field and Cross Country Coach's Association poll. Columbia University is currently ranked at 32nd, with Dartmouth ranked 34th.
"It will definitely be a battle for 2nd place," Harwick said.
The Ivy Heptagonals will be on Friday Oct. 29. The women's race will be at 11:00 a.m., and the men's race at 11:45 a.m.
