Competing in their toughest meet of the season thus far, Georgetown’s cross- country teams rose to the challenge and took some of the top honors at the Indiana State Pre-Nationals Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., on Oct. 18. The No. 5 women’s team finished in first place for the second year in a row while the unranked men’s team placed third in its best team race result this year.

The women’s team tallied 110 points in its victory, with an impressive 29-point margin between them and the No. 1 University of Oregon. Georgetown upset not only the top-ranked Ducks, but also the No. 3 University of Michigan, which finished third with 143 points. In cross-country, the team with the least amount of points wins.

“One of our goals [is] competing with the best teams in the country,” Women’s Cross-Country Head Coach Michael Smith said. “To beat teams like [Michigan and Oregon] at the pre-national meet really just validates our mission, our goals for the season.”

Senior All-American Katrina Coogan led the way for the Hoyas, finishing in third place among all of the runners on the field with a time of 20:37.7. Her dominant race marks the highest spot that a runner for the Hoyas women’s team has taken at pre-nationals, with former Hoyas taking fifth place in 2007, 2010 and 2011.

“[Coogan] really slated herself as someone who can run with the best girls in the country,” Smith said. “She really put together the best cross-country performance that she’s had at Georgetown.”

Coogan’s stellar performance paved the way for the Hoyas to win the meet. Her low score eased the pressure on the next six runners, who were allowed to exercise a conservative pack-running strategy while still ensuring that Georgetown could still finish with the top spot in the race. Pack running allows the team to finish with a solid team score, even if individual runners do not earn the top spots in the meet.

“We were able to [win] without everyone even having their best race so that is really encouraging in meets going forward,” Coogan said.

The women’s team’s victory is a continuation of its recent success at pre-nationals. The Hoyas have finished in first place in three of the last four times that they have traveled to Terre Haute for this competition.

While the women’s team sought to build on their triumphs from previous years, the men’s team looked to give its young team experience with the course at Terre Haute, which is the same course that is used for the NCAA championships in November.

The Hoyas did not disappoint – Georgetown finished in third place with 148 points, putting it 114 points ahead of the fourth place team, which finished with 262 points. Unranked since the second week of their season, the Hoyas finished ahead of No. 26 Furman University, No. 22 Colorado State University and No. 29 University of Tulsa.

“We put ourselves in good position [early in the race] so that when the real race started, we would be right next to who we wanted to compete against,” said junior All-American Ahmed Bile, who was the top runner for the men’s team and finished in 21st place.

The men’s team successfully executed its pack-running strategy, much like the women’s team.

“We’ve been talking and preaching [about] everyone running not just for themselves, but for the team,” Men’s Distance Coach Brandon Bonsey said. “I was really, really happy with how they executed our style of racing.”

Earning the third spot at Pre-Nationals was an especially good outcome for the young men’s team, whose top four runners in the race were either sophomores or juniors.

“I just think that it shows how good we can be in the future and how talented those guys are right now,” Bonsey said.

The Hoyas’ third-place finish also marks a substantial improvement from where the team was at this time one year ago. Instead of heading to pre-nationals, the men’s team traveled to Madison, Wis., to compete in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitation. The Hoyas finished in 26th place out of 35 spots.

“I think in the past, the guys were too focused on running some incredible individual race and then when that didn’t go perfectly, they weren’t willing to gut out a really good team effort,” Bonsey said. “At pre-nationals, they all just ran for the team.”

Even with both teams’ achievements over the weekend, the Hoyas continue to look for ways to improve as their season goes on.

“I think there is still a little bit of fitness to be gained and once we start to taper and run on fresh legs that’ll be a huge bonus,” Bile said. “But executing races as well as [pre-nationals], moving forward, should be a normal occurrence and I think we can look for even bigger and better performances as the season progresses.”

The Hoyas’ next meet marks the beginning of the postseason for the men’s and women’s cross country teams. They will travel to Indianapolis, Ind., to compete in the Big East Cross-Country Championships on Oct. 31.