On a cold, rainy Saturday morning in the mountains of West Virginia, the cross country season ended for all but one individual. Competing in the Mid-Atlantic district qualifying meet, the men's team placed third, while the women placed fifth. The top two teams in the region automatically qualify for the NCAA championship meet, held next Monday in Terre Haute, Indiana, as do the top four individuals not on a qualifying team. At-large bids are afforded to 13 more teams based on points garnered by having beaten teams that qualify automatically over the course of the regular season.
Villanova, the favorite coming into the regional meet, captured the team title with 40 points and second and third-place finishes by Adrian Blincoe and Jonathan Fasulo. Georgetown, who had the top individual finsiher, Mike Smith, took second in the team standings with 45 points. Princeton finished third with 108 points.
The third place showing by the men's team — an 11-point victory over nationally ranked LaSalle — was encouraging, and necessary to keep hopes of an at-large berth alive. Working against Princeton was the fact they had accumulated zero at-large points throughout the year. LaSalle had beaten two teams that qualified automatically — Tennessee and Notre Dame — but LaSalle could not "push" Princeton in for the final and 31st team spot at the big meet. Dartmouth, who handily defeated Princeton at Heps and placed third in the Northeast region, failed to advance as well.
Even more frustrating for the Tigers is the fact that the elusive fifth man finally materialized and that junior Jeff Dichiara and seniors Josh Ordway and Mike Baird all finally raced to their fitness level on the same day.
Sophomore Austin Smith led the team with a 14th place finish, covering the 10,000m course in 31 minutes, five seconds. Senior Captain Jon Bell finished in 19th place with a time of 31:20, classmate Mike Baird followed in 23rd place with a time of 31:33, and junior Jeff Dichiara placed 27th (31:37). The scoring was rounded out by senior Josh Ordway (30th, 31:41). Junior All-Ivy Tristan Colangelo, nursing an injury that has kept him out of training for several weeks, faded to 39th place (31:51).
The 1-5 spread of 36 seconds was what Coach Brady had been looking for all season. Had the Tigers run that way earlier in the season, they would have been assured tickets to scenic Indiana by virtue of at-large wins.
"We are not unhappy with the way the team ran Saturday" said Colangelo, "but if we had run that way at an earlier meet we would have qualified. That's the general feeling."
The women's team entered the meet in a similar position as the men, having to place third to leave open the possibility of being selected for an at-large bid. Through the first three runners, the Tigers were ahead of eventual third place team Penn State. Junior Emily Kroshus placed seventh (21:03) on the mud-bath of a course and qualified as an individual for next Monday's national championship meet.
Junior Laura Petrillo continued her breakout campaign, earning All-District honors with a 25th place finish (21:49). Junior Becca Snyder continued her trademark of consistency, placing 30th in a time of 22:09. Despite strong runs by freshman Cack Ferrell (40th, 22:32) and sophomore Marian Birhle (53rd, 22:47), the team scored 144 points and fell to Georgetown, Villanova, Penn State and host West Virginia.
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