Jeff Grosscup/The Hoya Freshman att DeBole rounded out the field of seven scoring Hoyas at Saturday’s Pre-Nationals. The men finished fourth overall.

The Georgetown cross country teams made a huge statement at the NCAA Pre-Nationals Meet Saturday in Waterloo, Iowa. Both the men and the women return to the Hilltop as top-10 finishers, as the men’s team finished in fourth place and the women’s team finished seventh.

The meet – designed to give runners a chance to test the course that will be used for the National Championships – had 34 teams competing on the men’s side and 35 on the women’s.

The men’s cross country team greatly surpassed expectations set by the last week’s Mondo Cross Country Poll, which ranked the Hoyas 14th. This team performance was lead by junior team captain Rod Koborsi, who completed the 8,000m course in 17th place in 23:58.8. His effort was quickly backed up by sophomore Chris Lukezic who crossed the line in 24:11.3 for a 28th place finish. Sophomore Fleet Hower and junior Chris Esselborn were the next Hoyas to come through in 38th and 47th places, respectively, with times of 24:21.0 and 24:31.9. The final scorer was freshman Matt Debole who placed 71st with a time of 24:43.9.

The seven runners began the race together in one pack, which eventually split into two separate packs. The first group consisted of Koborsi, Lukezic and Hower. These top three distanced themselves from the second pack of Debole, Esselborn, senior Dan Tebbano and freshman Brian Dalpiaz. “The goal was to have them go out in the two packs, but because of the workouts we’ve had over the past two weeks, they were a bit tired and not rested,” head coach Pat Henner said. “This, plus the fact that they went out a bit too hard, cost them about 10 seconds on their time.”

Colorado won the men’s race with 109 points, propelled by Dathan Ritzenhein who finished first with a time of 23:17.7. Northern Arizona and Ohio State finished second and third with respective scores of 114 and 141 points. Georgetown took the fourth place spot with 201 points, compiling an average course time of 24:22.

On the women’s side, the Hoyas also finished higher in the race then their current ranking in the FinishLynx Cross Country Poll anticipated, earning a seventh place finish. Georgetown had been ranked No. 8 in the country by the poll. Senior Treniere Clement, the top Hoya finisher, had an outstanding race as she finished in fifth place for the 6,000m race in a time of 20:14.1. She was followed by junior Nicole Lee at 20:51.6 and senior Amanda Pape at 20:56.2 with respective finishes of 20th and 24th. Rounding out the Georgetown scorers were senior Diana Clock in 75th place and senior Rose Wetzel in 90th place, who crossed the line in 21:50.6 and 21:59.2, respectively. The race featured over 200 runners.

North Carolina’s Shalane Flanagan was the fastest finisher of the meet in the field of 200-plus runners (19:29.5). Top-ranked Brigham Young was the women’s champion, accumulating 86 points.

Now at midseason, the Hoyas are poised and ready to make their presence known in the nation as a top contender.

“Of course, we are training our runners to peak for the NCAAs. It’s the biggest meet of the season, but we are also focusing on giving Villanova a run for their money at the Big East Championships in two weeks,” Henner said. “Hopefully, we can definitely improve upon this performance for the upcoming championships.”