By Sarah Powell
Haverford Men’s Cross Country placed second out of twenty-seven teams at the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational. The team competed in a 4k race and an 8k race.
The scores of the top three members of each team in the two categories are averaged to create an overall score. The men’s team entered without specifically training for this particular distance.
However, they embraced the challenge and produced remarkable results despite competing without some of their top runners, including senior captain Zack Vaslow.
Coach Tom Donnelly gave a handful of upperclassmen the weekend off in order to preserve energy for the Oshkosh Wisconsin Invitational this week. This performance from an undermanned position indicates the team’s potential for this season and those to come.
This team recognizes its talent, but does not allow itself to be distracted from performing at a high level.
As Mark Burgmann ‘09 explains, “[We are] very business-like. We enjoy [running] and have fun with it. We take it seriously; we focus our energy on the race and do not psych ourselves out.” This philosophy pulls the team together for races as well as away from the trails.
The Fords were quick to point out the value of this particular race. As Burgmann observed, “It is similar to the course that we will be running at the Centennial Conference Championships at the end of October.”
Also, since the runners are not familiar with running shorter distances like the 4k, it gave them an opportunity to, in the words of Taylor Burmeister ‘09, “go hard from the gun, feel fast, and get confidence up.”
He also added that “many of the younger members on the team were still used to running in high school meets, so this race allowed them to gain experience in college meets.” The Fords hope that this mix of young talent and veteran leadership will garner continued success as the season progresses.
Younger team members successfully navigated the 4k, as freshman Ben Frisbee finished in 4th place, with a time of 12:29.90. Freshman Andrew Lanham placed 7th with a time of 12:33.57, Burmeister placed 20th at 12:53.87, sophomore Patrick Donnelly finished 13:00.19, and Burgmann came in at 13:21.77.
Other notable results included freshman Phil Eisemen at 13:35.25, fellow freshman Sunile Adige at 13:51.31, Nathan Patton ‘07 at 13:53.83, freshman Alberto Guerrero at 14:21.18, and junior Alan Ackroyd-Isales at 14:33.21.
In the 8k race, senior Mike Grant led the Fords with a 4th place finish in 26:47.57. Senior Jim Dupont earned 16th with a time of 27:16.19, sophomore Daniel O’Toole grabbed 24th at 27:29.65, and junior Ben Marsden (26th) finished in 27:39.36. Paul Bisceglio ‘09 and Jason Oaks ‘09 ran times of 27:59.04 and 28:00.78, respectively, and senior Colin Yarbrough ran a 28:30.84. Other Ford contributions included junior Greg Potestio at 28:41.14, sophomore Michael Hildner at 28:50.18, sophomore Benjamin Walker at 28:52.76, senior Reilly Costigan-Humes at 29:00.82, junior Thomas Holowka at 29:03.32, senior Tim Golden at 29:40.24, freshman Nick Vechik at 30:46.71, and freshman Richard Marsico at 32:18.80.
This article is © 2008 The Bi-College News. The material on this page is free for personal or educational use, but may not be reproduced, reprinted, republished, redistributed, or otherwise transmitted to a third party without the express written permission of The Bi-College News, 370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041.
Editor's note: Articles that appear in the Last Word section are works of satire.
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