Tim Erickson/The Hoya The men’s cross country team finished second at the invitational and is currently ranked 14th in the nation according to the latest poll.
The cross country season is running ahead at full steam as the Hoyas return to the Hilltop from the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa. This past Saturday, both the women’s and men’s teams garnered first place finishes.
The women beat out a stellar field of 32 teams and amassed 28 points to secure the win. They were led by senior team captain Treniere Clement, who crossed the line as runner-up in 20:39.45 for the 6K. Junior Nicole Lee, freshman Elizabeth Maloy and senior Amanda Pape followed with a four-five-six finish and respective times of 20:48.83, 20:53.39 and 21:03.61. Senior team captain Colleen Kelly rounded out the top Georgetown scorers, clocking in at 21:19.79 to finish in 11th place.
These top five finishers all finished within 40 seconds of each other. “The girls ran together and fed off each other,” said Ron Helmer, director of track and field and cross country. “The fact that they all finished so close together is a great indicator this early in the season, hopefully by championship season we can reduce that margin to 30 or 35 seconds.”
For the first 2,000 meters of the race, the girls ran together with the lead pack. After 3,000 meters, they began to break away as did two runners from West Virginia.
“These girls stayed up at the lead pack and were running with some of the best runners in the country,” Helmer said.
Megan Metcalfe from West Virginia won the race as her teammate, Tara Struyk, ended in third place.
The Hoyas also dominated the open division of the meet, having the top five collegiate finishers in the race. Senior Rose Wetzel headed that pack to victory. “These girls show the depth of our team. By championship season, maybe one of them could sneak into the top seven runners,” Helmer said.
On the men’s side, the Hoyas were equally impressive as they also captured the team title beating out 32 other teams with a cumulative score of 31 points. They placed their five scoring runners within the top 11 places of the race that featured over 230 runners. This pack was led by junior team captain Rob Koborsi who earned runner-up honors with a time of 24:17.03 in the 8K. Sophomore Chris Lukezic ran to a third-place finish (24:22.20) as junior Chris Esselborn and sophomore Fleet Hower garnered seventh and eighth place finishes in respective times of 24:31.63 and 24:36.64. Like the women’s team, the men’s team showed great depth as their top five runners all finished within 27 seconds of each other.
The Hoyas are proving their strength in the league and in the NCAA as the most recent rankings, which came out Sept. 30, look promising. The FinishLynx Preseason
Poll for women ranks the Hoyas 10th in the nation and second in the Big East Conference.
For the men, the Mondo Preseason Poll places the Hoyas as 14th in the nation and first in the Big East Conference. At last year’s Big East Conference championships, the men finished third and the women finished second.
“The Big East Conference is one of the toughest conferences to compete in and is sometimes just as hard as the NCAA championships. So we are hoping to try and win in a few weeks at the Big East Championships,” Helmer said.
