The men’s and women’s cross-country teams finished among the top 30 teams in the nation at Monday’s NCAA championships, placing 16th and 27th, respectively.
Men’s senior Fleet Hower paced the Hoya pack with his time of 30:16.7 in the 10,000-meter run, exactly one minute off the pace of the individual champion, senior Simon Bairu of Wisconsin. Hower’s time earned him a 34th place finish and his first All-American honor. His time was a two-minute improvement from last year’s championship race where he placed 70th.
The team fell one rank from last year’s championship but improved its overall time by seven minutes. Last year’s race, however, was run on a muddy course in less than ideal conditions.
Sophomore Dan Nunn was the next Hoya to finish, with a total time of 30:57.0, good for 97th place. Nunn placed 227th last year and improved his time by four minutes. Georgetown had three underclassmen among its top five finishers, including freshman ichael Krisch who placed 171st with an encouraging time of 31:37.8.
The Georgetown women finished 27th in the nation with a total time of 1:48:25 – an impressive improvement from last year, when the team did not qualify for the championship race.
The women were led by sophomore Maggie Infeld whose time of 21:10.6 in the 6,000-meter race placed her 101st overall. The championship was Infeld’s second and she finished 48 seconds faster than her race last year.
The next three Hoya finishers were separated by 18 seconds with Elizabeth Maloy leading the pack at 21:32.8. In a promising sign for the future, sophomores Infeld, Maloy and Joanna Rodgers, as well as freshman Lise Ogrodnick, were four of the top five finishers for the women.
The strong finishes at the NCAA championship come as additions to Georgetown’s already brimming shelf of accolades. Earlier this year, the men finished second at the Big East championships, and won the NCAA Mid-Atlantic championship meet. The women’s team also placed second in the Big East, while capturing third place at the Mid-Atlantic meet.
While the current success of the men’s and women’s teams is largely reliant on upperclassmen, the exceptionally strong crop of sophomores and freshmen gives both teams bright futures.
The next meet for both teams is the Navy Invitational Dec. 2 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
