The St. Lawrence men’s and women’s cross country teams won the NCAA Atlantic Regional titles on Saturday. St. Lawrence swept the titles for the second time in the last four years.
“Our success this season was going to require huge improvements from our upper-class ladies and big time performances from our rookies, both delivered today,” said Women’s Coach Mike Howard. Leading the upper-class women was Senior Cassia Hameline and captains Anne Martino and Lisa Grohn. First-Year Megan Kellogg ran what Howard called “the best rookie race I’ve ever seen” en route to picking up several crucial points for the Saints in the final 100 meters of the race.
The men were led by the top 10 finishes of Sophomore Thomas Caulfield and Senior captain Trevor Bibb. Rounding out the five scoring spots were Sophomore Joe Smith, Junior Wesley Kirui and Junior Spencer Patterson. “I’m very proud of the guys for running a great race and for the entire program. We had great support from our students, alumni and parents who came out and extended their well wishes and congratulations,” said Men’s Coach John Newman.
The student support which Newman alluded to consisted of the non-competing athletes on both the men’s and women’s teams. “The presence of the other team members is a great motivation. You get fired up when you hear someone who you have been crushing workouts with yelling at you in the middle of the race,” said Kirui. “Planning the trip can be a little disorganized, but once we get to the course we talk to the racing squad to get their opinion on where they will need the most support during the race, and try to get to those areas,” explained Senior Danny Driscoll.
Prior to the race, both teams spent time discussing tactics and formulating a race strategy revolving around their large packs. “[The women executed] our strategy [which] was to follow our normal race plan…get out aggressive and run as a pack up front as much as possible” said Howard. “[The men] executed our plan, which was keeping our pack together through the middle of the race and then making moves when the other teams tried to pick up the pace” said Kirui.
Both programs will look to build off the momentum from the victory next weekend at the National Championship in Mason, Ohio. “Just like at the regional championship meet, we expect our runners to run fiercely and [they] are determined to accomplish what we have set out to to together this season” observed Sophomore Claire Pacione. “The whole team has very high expectations for Nationals. We have performed well all season, and regionals gave us a huge confidence boost,” added Driscoll.
St. Lawrence will be represented by two teams who are currently ranked in the top 10 of the national polls at the meet this weekend. When they step on the line, the men will be ranked sixth and the women third nationally. Last season the men finished 26th and the women were eighth at the National Championship meet. The men’s race begins at 11:00 A.M. and will be followed by the women at 12:15 P.M. on Saturday.