2008 XC NESCAC

NESCAC Championships

Nov 1st at Pineland Farm, ME (Hosted by Bates)

Team Results

Men 3rd with 93 points and Women 5th with 143 points

13	Daniel	Murner	26:18
14	Eric	Holaday	26:18
15	William	Yochum	26:19
24	Jimmy	Swanson	26:37
27	Harrison	Lakehomer	26:43
46	John	McGrail	27:12
50	Peter	Foote	27:15
53	Steven	Corsello	27:19
60	Carlyle	Eubank	27:27
91	Alec	Jacobson	28:27
93	Ben	Klein	28:30
102	Kevin	Hanley	28:46

1	Elise	Tropiano	21:49
31	Hallie	Schwab	23:39
32	Zandra	Walton	23:39
48	Caitlin	McDermott-Murphy	24:03
52	Nicole	Anderson	24:14
54	Eliza	Schalch	24:16
59	Christina	Wong	24:20
61	Liz	Dalton	24:21
75	Laura	Zaccagnino	24:44
77	Sophia	Galleher	24:46
85	Melissa	Pritchard	25:03
86	Cate	Knuff	25:03

The teams headed up to Maine, and the Pineland Farms XC course for the NESCAC Championship hosted by Bates. The course was a mix of grass and XC skiing trails and was a challenging combination of ups and downs, gradual and sharp turns, grass and dirt - a true XC course. The men set off at noon and by the 2 mile the race had started to separate in a couple of individual breaks and small packs. Daniel Murner, Eric Holaday and Will Yochum let the gap open between them and a group of runners battling in the Top 10 but raced strong to finish 13,14 and 15th - with Daniel and Eric each earning spots on the All-NESCAC team (Top 14 earn the honor) - and the trio running a time of 26:18. Jimmy Swanson came in 4th for the team, cracking the Top 20 and then another 2 seconds back from him was Harrison Lakehomer as the 1-5 gap was a scant 25 seconds. John McGrail and Peter Foote rounded out the top 7 as both runners cracked the Top 50. Steve Corsello had another strong race, finishing just behind these 2 while Alec Jacobson and Ben Klein worked together with Kevin Hanley coming in shortly after. Despite the tight pack, Williams was able to capture the win and Trinity had a great race to finish just ahead of us as we finished 3rd.

Elise Tropiano - as she has done all season - led not only the team, but the entire conference as she ran a controlled first 2 miles before starting to pull away in the outer trail and then dropping another gear at the 3 mile mark to move away comfortably to win by nearly 30 seconds in a new course record of 21:47 - also a 6k PR. A little bad luck zapped some of the strength of the team with a couple of people not on their normal game but it was an opportunity for others to step up. Hallie Schwab and Zandra Walton finished 2nd and 3rd for the team as they finished with each other in the race, while Caitlin Murphy - bothered by a nagging IT Band injury - ran for the first time in the last few weeks and wa sable to get some of the rust off to help the team as the 4th runner. Nicole Anderson and Liza Schalch - who continues to get better each race, finished 5th and 6th for the team with Christina Wong grabbing the 7th spot for the team, just ahead of Liz Dalton and Laura Zaccagnino. Cate Knuff and Melissa pritchard came across the line at the same time. While the 5th place finish fell short of team goals, the return to full health of a couple of key runners combined with the improvements from others will improve the team at Districts.