Thirty-eight teams toed the line, but the Georgetown women had more riding on Saturday’s pre-Nationals than most.
Vying for at-large qualification points for Nationals, the Hoyas were dealing with a bit of uncertainty as they prepared to go against 10 of the top 30 teams in the nation.
Seniors Elizabeth Maloy, and Joanna Rodgers were running their first races of the season after coming off of injuries and top runner Melissa Grelli had recently fallen under the weather. Georgetown soon erased all doubt as they secured a fifth-place finish, and valuable at-large credentials.
To qualify for Nationals, a team must either place first or second in their region, or secure one of the 13 at-large bids. With the women’s mid-Atlantic Region containing eighth-ranked Princeton and 20th-ranked West Virginia,
Coach Chris Miltenberg stressed to his team the importance of “gaining as many points as we could for at-large qualifying . to make it that much easier going into the regional meet.”
The Hoyas did just that, knocking off seventh-ranked Rice, 14th-ranked Colorado State, and 16th-ranked Boston College to solidify their chances at an at-large bid should they need it.
The women were led by junior Melissa Grelli, who fought through her illness to place fifth with a time of 20:14, a performance that iltenberg described as “great, considering how she was feeling.”
Sophomore Lise Ogrodnick continued to improve coming off of her injury early on, turning in an outstanding performance, according to Miltenberg, that was good for 29th. Maloy and Rodgers, both having overcome their injuries helped the club immensely, and with sophomore Kelsey Malmquist, rounded out the Hoyas’ top five.
“We did everything we wanted to do,” Miltenberg said.
The men, although traveling to a less publicized meet in the Princeton Invitational, added to their season by taking the team championship. The Hoyas swept the top five spots with senior Matt Debole leading them with a first-place time of 24:08.
Taking second through fifth, respectively, were junior Justin Scheid, and the sophomore trio of Mike Krisch, Sandy Roberts and Alex Mason.
“Not only did our top group run well, but I felt like our whole team did well,” Director of Cross Country Pat Henner said.
With the majority of the team already acclimated to the nationals course in Terre Haute, Ind.
Henner chose the low-key Princeton invite over pre-Nationals, preferring to get some solid training in rather “than worrying about running another race.”
Despite both teams’ success, however, the focus of the program is concentrated on the upcoming Big East Championships on Oct. 27.
Both teams look to have full squads as those injured have turned in good training and should be ready to go.
“We want to win the Big East. At Georgetown that’s the goal every year,” Miltenberg said.
