Hoyas Come Home With Top-10 Finishes

Last weekend, the nation’s finest long-distance runners converged in Ames, Iowa for the Memorial Classic, where over 50 top programs, including 17 schools ranked in the top 25, lined up for a preview of next month’s NCAA Cross Country Championships. The top runners for the Georgetown’s seventh-ranked men’s and women’s teams, coming off a long rest period, ran the course for fifth and ninth-place finishes, respectively.

Third-ranked Colorado topped the 53-team men’s field, taking four top-20 finishes, including Jorge Torres’ 30:31.1 meet-winning time, en route to its 64-point winning effort. The Buffaloes finished 151 points ahead of second-place Northern Arizona (251). No. 1 Stanford (255), competing without their top two runners, placed third. Georgetown’s 313 points earned the Hoyas a fifth-place finish and put them only three points behind fourth place Brigham Young (310).

Sophomore Mike Smith paced the Hoyas, covering the 10,000-meter course in 31.13.0 for ninth place overall. Senior David Rodriguez also ran a solid race, placing 14th with a time of 13:20.4. Senior Corey Smith (31:42.0) and juniors Kyle Smits (32:25.7) and Chris iltenberg (32:48.9) also scored points in the competition.

A noteworthy performance also came from Senior Brad Stapleton (32:40.6), who garnered the sixth spot in the B-race.

“We got great races out of Mike Smith and David Rodriguez,” Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Ron Helmer said. “But I think [Assistant Coach] Patrick Henner expected more from our four and five [runners Smits and iltenberg].”

The defending National Champion BYU Cougars emerged victorious from the women’s 6,000-meter run with a team score of 117. The Hoyas, who have been running this season without last year’s Pre-Nationals No. 2 runner sophomore Marni Kruppa, tallied 360 points to take ninth. The point total came as a compilation of senior Lorena Adams’ team-best 41st-place finish (22:01.9), along with the efforts of senior Autumn Fogg (22:07.0), senior Emily Enstice (22:17.8), freshman Amanda Pape (22:20.1) and senior Kate Crowley (23:07.8).

Next month, most of the same teams will come back to Ames, as the Iowa State course plays host to the culmination of all regular season efforts – the NCAA Championships. The main purpose of the pre-national meet is for the various teams to scout the competition and get familiar with the grueling Iowa State course.

“It’s a tough, hilly, hard course,” BYU Coach Patrick Shane said.

“[Last weekend] it was 75 degrees, hot, humid and windy. It’s going to be windy there no matter what,” Colorado Head Coach Mark Wetmore said.

The 10-kilometer format of the men’s meet also provided a chance for the runners to get acclimated to the longer distances of the upcoming regional and championship races. Saturday’s 10-kilometer was 2,000 meters further than the typical eight-kilometer regular season events for men, and the women’s six-kilometer was 1,000-meters more than the usual 5-kilometer regular season contests.

The Hoyas seemed to have adjusted well to the change on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top-10 finishes place the Hoyas within striking distance for crown, but they must now prepare for the conditions in Ames in order to have a shot at winning the title.

“I think we’ve established ourselves as a top ten team, with the potential to take a run at one of the top spots in the national championships, but we have a lot of work to do,” Helmer said.

The Hoyas will travel to Boston for the Big East Championship this weekend and have five more weeks to train before heading back to Ames for nationals Nov. 20.