Senior Nick Wareham and junior Jack Van Scoter competed for the Georgetown men’s cross country team in the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Madison, Wis. on Nov. 17, earning two top-65 finishes.

The ten-kilometer race was held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, where Wareham earned 53rd place overall and Van Scoter finished 64th out of 252 runners.

Each runner shed nearly one minute off their times since Georgetown’s last 10k race at Penn State in the NCAA Mid Atlantic Regionals on Nov. 9. Wareham finished with a time of 30:10.6, while Van Scoter placed close behind with a time of 30:21.5.

Men’s Cross Country Head Coach Brandon Bonsey attributed their improved times to the better course conditions and the strong competition.

“In cross country, times are, to be honest, pretty irrelevant,” Bonsey said in an interview with The Hoya. “It’s just course dependent. The conditions at the regional meet were really sloppy. The grass [in Wisconsin] was certainly firmer than it was at Penn State. [Also] the regional meet is usually a little bit more tactical of a race, whereas [at] the national meet they go run, fairly honestly, from the gun.”

Around the four kilometer mark at the NCAA Championship race, both runners told Bonsey that they were struggling.

Bonsey explained the differences between running as an individual and running with a team, and praised Wareham and Van Scoter’s resilience.

“I told them both afterwards that when you’re an individual, it’s easier to give into the pain than it is when you know you have your teammates depending on you. So that would’ve been an easy situation for both to crumble a little bit, but they didn’t. They stayed tough,” Bonsey said.

Wareham and Van Scoter fell short of being named All Americans, but Bonsey said that they are capable of earning the honor next season.

“They’re both very close to being All American,” Bonsey said. You take out all the seniors, they’re going to be some of the top returners in the country next year. I was really proud of their season in general and then certainly how they finished things at the NCAA meet.”

The Georgetown men’s and women’s teams will now prepare for the indoor season, which will begin in December.

Bonsey said that the team already has goals in mind for the indoor season.

“Our goal is always to get as many people qualified as possible for the NCAA indoor meet, get a distance medley relay qualified, and score as many points as we can at Nationals,” Bonsey.

The men’s and women’s squads will open the indoor season at the U.S. Naval Academy, where they will compete in the Navy Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 1.