The men’s and women’s cross country teams entered this season without some familiar faces — stars Abbey D’Agostino ’14 and Will Geoghegan ’14 graduated in June, and women’s head coach Mark Coogan left the team for New Balance.
But on Saturday, the teams did not skip a beat, cruising to victories in the Dartmouth Invitational. The women finished one-two-three-four-six for a near perfect point total of 16. Brown University came in second with 51 points. The men finished with 21 points, well ahead of Brown’s 46. The wins were the first for both teams at the Dartmouth Invitational since 2011.
Dana Giordano ’16 had the race from the gun, finishing with a time of 21:14.50. The entire Big Green, the defending Ivy League champions, opened the race together at the front.
Running as a pack was the team’s strategy, new head coach Courtney Jaworski said.
“We’ll be focusing on that in our workouts and practices,” he said.
After Giordano’s finish, Sarah DeLozier ’15, Ellie Gonzalez ’18 and Reid Watson ’16 finished second, third and fourth with times of 21:18.70, 21:34.60 and 21:43.00, respectively. Leigh Moffett ’18 finished sixth.
“I’m really impressed with our team,” Giordano said. “We had a couple freshmen up there which is also a nice surprise.”
Brown freshman Natalie Schudrowitz was the only non-Big Green athlete in the top 10. Helen Schlachtenhaufen ’17, Alison Lanois ’15, Meggie Donovan ’15 and Sarah Bennett ’16 placed seventh through 10th in the race, all finishing around the 22-minute mark.
This dominance is an encouraging sign in spite of the abbreviated time the team has had during preseason, Jaworski said. After the older athletes spent a week together at the Second College Grant, they joined the freshmen last week for full squad practices.
“Over the summer they’ve been doing a lot of good workouts and we’ve only had two weeks of preseason,” he said. “This race is based a lot on that summer work. They’re very fit and had a great race day overall.”
While the loss of D’Agostino is a challenge, the team is not letting it damper their high expectations for this season, Giordano said.
Jaworski noted that the team is deep enough to handle the loss of such a quality runner without a hiccup.
“Obviously any team in the country would love to have Abbey on it,” he said. “The cool thing about this team even last year is that it is very deep. Four of the five Heps runners are back. It’s kind of the same team, just less Abbey. And our freshman class is the strongest we’ve had in 10 to 15 years.”
The Dartmouth men also dominated their home course.
The Big Green’s point scorers placed first, second, third, seventh and eighth for a total of 21 points. Curtis King ’16, Silas Talbot ’15 and Nat Adams ’17 paced the field, finishing first in 24:25.30, second in 24:27.30 and third in 24:30.00, respectively.
“We’re following in the footsteps of a lot of guys who have won this race and who have been top five in this race,” King said. “We always race well at home, and it’s good to see that continue this year.”
Anthony Anzivino ’16 and Matt Klein ’16 tied for 10th, and Pat Gregory ’18 and Kyle Dotterrer ’18 crossed the finish line in 12th and 13th, respectively. The men’s race was 8 kilometers long.
“The first race is always a great experience because when you don’t race cross country for a while, you forget it’s painful,” head coach Barry Harwick said. “And for the younger guys who are used to running 5ks in high school, it’s nice to get experience on the longer course. This is a pretty low-key meet and it’s nice to get the ‘W,’ but we’re looking forward to a much bigger race in two weeks in Boston.”
The Dartmouth men also graduated star power in June — Geoghegan, Steve Mangan ’14, John Bleday ’14 and Henry Sterling ’14 had stellar fall performances, scoring at the NCAA Cross Country Championship Meet last year in Terre Haute, Indiana. These seniors were the workhorses of the team that placed third at last year’s Ivy League Heptagonal Championships.
“I think that this is a team that’s going to be underestimated this season, and we’re going to have a chip on our shoulder because of it,” King said. “Just because we lost four seniors who were great runners doesn’t mean we don’t have more bullets in the chamber ready to fire. You’ll see a lot of guys who are great runners get their day in the sun this season.”
One of those runners is King himself, who burst onto the scene after a 21st place finish in the 5,000-meter race at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor National Championships held at the University of Oregon in the spring.
To Harwick, Curtis is a great example of the team’s strong upcoming runners.
“I think they’ve progressed a lot from last year at this time, and we’ll have a good squad this year,” he said.
Both the men and women are back in action in two weeks at the Boston College Invite in Franklin Park in Boston.
