In all four major North American sports, there is a preseason, which every team deals with differently. Most NFL teams choose to rest their starters for parts of games, while MLB teams often choose to send split squads to two different locations. Preparation for the major tournaments in NCAA cross country is no different.
The Georgetown women’s cross country team travelled to Terre Haute, Ind., this past weekend to compete in the Indiana State Pre-National Meet. The Hoyas finished second out of 37 schools, behind only Florida State, legitimizing their status as a national title contender.
Seven-time All-American senior Emily Infeld was the first to finish among a strong group of Hoya runners, placing fifth with a time of 20:44. Her finish was impressive not only based on the talent of the field, but because it was Infeld’s first race of the season.
As critical as Infield will likely be to her team’s success for the rest of the season, it is the depth of the Hoyas that truly shone at this particular event. Although only the top five times for each school were officially counted, it was clear that the Blue and Gray sported the most depth — all seven of its runners finished in the top 45. Georgetown’s finish of 5/17/19/26/32 for a total of 99 was bested only by Florida State’s 4/7/8/13/14 for a competition-low total of 46. The Seminoles’ final finisher, however, placed 86th. Had all of the scores been counted, the Hoyas’ 185 combined placing would have been much closer to the Seminoles’ 152.
For this particular event, the Hoyas’ team-first strategy paid big dividends, as graduate student Claire Richardson finished second among the Hoyas and 17th overall in 21:09. Following Richardson was junior All-American Emily Jones, who placed 19th, freshman Annamarie Maag, who finished 26th and freshman Katrina Coogan, who took 33rd overall. Junior Kirsten Kasper and senior Loren Borduin came in 41st and 45th, respectively.
While the women’s team was cementing its place among the national favorites, the men’s team split into two squads and went to two different sites to test their mettle against a variety of competitors. Half of the split squad was sent to Madison, Wis., to compete in the Wisconsin adidas Invitational, while the rest stayed closer to home, traveling to Charlottesville, Va., for the Panorama Farms Invitational. The Wisconsin squad finished 24th of 39 schools while at the University of Virginia, Georgetown placed sixth out of 10 teams.
While neither of the tournaments culminated in top finishes for the Blue and Gray, the split squad was used, like in professional sports, to give more athletes the opportunity to compete and the coaches a chance to evaluate their runners.
Senior Mark Dennin led the way for the Hoyas with a time of 24:42 at the adidas Invitational — good enough for 41st place — and was followed closely by graduate student Alexander Lundy, who clocked in seven seconds slower and finished 53rd. All seven of Georgetown’s runners finished in under 26:07, with graduate student T.C. Lumbar, junior Andrew Springer, junior Ben Furcht, freshman Omar Kaddurah and freshman John Murray finishing 153rd, 175th, 187th, 208th and 230th respectively. Although the team finished in the bottom 15, the result was deceptive as the tournament contained 19 ranked teams, including the No. 2 Badgers. The Hoyas finished fifth out of the six Big East teams.
Meanwhile, in Virginia — where Georgetown finished sixth out of 10 — the first Hoya to cross the line was freshman and Charlottesville native Derek Armstrong, who clocked in at 25:28, followed by sophomore Brian King, junior Bobby Peavey, sophomore Max Darrah and freshman Miles Schoedler.
The preparatory races are now over for both teams; the men and women will next compete in the Big East championships on Oct. 29 in Louisville, Ky., before the running in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships in early November.
