Panthers stretch their sweet strides to victory

Author: Sarah Bryan

Sept. 20 was a day of gorgeous weather, home field advantages and sweet victories, including those of the cross country teams. Both the men's and women's teams swept the Panther Invitational on Saturday Sept. 20, pulling away with strong overall finishes and some noteworthy individual times. Norwich University, St. Michael's College, Paul Smith College, Vermont Technical College, Morrisville State and SUNY Canton brought some strong competition to the course, but were no match for the ferocious Panther squads.

The men's team swept the top seven places in their 8k run, scoring the minimum points possible (17) and putting second place finisher St. Michael's to shame, winning by more than 50 points. The women finished with 19 points, followed not too closely by St. Michael's (49) and Norwich (74).

This weekend's race differed from the Panther's previous two events, in that runners ran individually with their own strategy, instead of running in packs. On the men's squad, Michael Schimdt '12 finished first with a time of 27:06 followed closely by Jack Terret '11 (27:09) and Jack Wambach '09 (27:26).

"Our average time as a team this year was better than our top three times just three years ago at this same event." said Chris Free '10. "We're not a team of individual times." "This year the depth of our team has improved dramatically and should help us when we get to more competitive meets."

The women's team also dominated the course, securing a victory for their already outstanding season record. Captain Alexandria Krieg '09 finished first with a time of 18:29, a repeat of her first place performance in last year's Panther Invitational. In second place, Mary Lynn Denholm '09 of St. Michael's finished almost twenty seconds behind Krieg with a time of 18:46, giving the Panthers some breathing room. Close behind Denholm, however, lurked the Panther squad who dominated the next 16 spots and secured the team a victory. Following Krieg were Elise Moody-Roberts '12 (18:59), Claire McIlvennie '12 (19:21) and Hannah Meier '11 (19:41) in third through fifth places. Cate Brown '12, Chelsea Ward-Waller '12 and Sophia Spring '11 also posted impressive times, finishing in the top eight.

The men's course started near the football field, wound its way around the soccer practice fields then continued for two loops through the cross country trail. The women's 5k track included similar sections of the cross country trail by the Ralph Myhre Golf Course, as well as the perimeters of the playing fields. And just like other sports, home field advantage does apply to cross country. Knowing where the hills are and how far or steep they are allows the runner to easily determine when to kick into the upper gear and stretch out their legs for the final push.

This week's run, although more competitive than last week's Williams fun run, was still taken as a warm up for future meets. Next week the Panthers travel to Williams, where they will compete against other top NESCAC schools. To prepare for the event, the teams are taking it relatively easy and will run less mileage with fewer intense workouts. Instead of pushing their bodies with hard workouts on Thursday and Friday, both teams plan to give themselves some rest so they are energized come Saturday. While at Williams, the women look to beat Amherst, a top ranked team in the NESCAC, while the men hold no serious rivals and hope to continue their already spectacular season.