Race Recap

Runners of the Meet - Andrew Erskine and Abby Hopper

The teams headed north to Keene State to run in the Keene State Invitational for the first time, changing the complexion of the schedule this year. What was forecasted to be a lot of rain ended up being very light showers with a lot of water and mud on the ground but proved to be great XC conditions! The women got the day started in victorious fashion as they dominated the meet, placing all 5 scoring runners in the Top 10 led by Sophie Galleher's first cross country victory. Sophie took the lead from the start of the race and never looked back. First year runner Ali Simeone had a strong finish to grab 4th overall, with Hallie Schwab coming in right on her heels in 5th, and coming in as the next finisher was Melissa Sullivan who ran a 19:13 for 6th place. Christina Wong secured the final scoring spot for the team with her 9th place finish and closed out the scoring with a 25 point win. Mercedes Taylor in 11th had another strong race, while first year Elodie Reed would round out the Top 7 as she placed 16th overall and had classmate Sarah Daly hot on her heels. First years Kristen Moulton and Keri Lambert worked hard together, finishing back to back, as did Melissa Pritchard and Cara Giaimo who finished 30 and 31st. Rebecca Alizzi and Eliza Schalch each broke the Top 50, while in 55th was Abby Hopper who knocked a huge chunk of time off her personal best - just missing getting under 21 minutes. Continuing the strong pack running, Marlils Gnirke, Anna Hager and Laura Zaccagnino were separated by a mere 6 seconds, and the dup of Cate Knuff and Ellen Richmond came across 2 seconds apart and Jamila Odeh knocked nearly a minute off of her time from last week to finish the day for the team. The team did a great job of working the race with each other and doing a great job of looking for their teammates and feeding off of each other in the harder parts of the race.

The men were a little shorthanded (or footed) as they were missing a couple of their scoring runners, and another was battling the remnants of the cold that swept through most of the team last week but despite some absences, had a very strong meet. Daniel Murner grabbed the win (actually finished 2nd but the winner was an unattached runner and did not factor into the scoring) as he pulled away from a pack of 4 guys in the last mile and a half and cruised to a 25:54. Steve Corsello and Andrew Erskine did a great job of working off of each other in the late stages of the race and pushed each other to Top 15 places in 26:32 and 33. John McGrail finished 4th for the team with Travis Cohoon closing out the scoring with another sub 27 minute effort. Carlyle Eubank, one of the team's top runners in the first 2 meets showed the lasting effects of being sick, and struggled in as the 6th runner for the team but was able to stay in front of USM's 5th runner to help secure 3rd place while Alec Jacobson had an awesome race to finish 7th for the team, and was just off of his PR from last year. Geoff Ainslie and Dillon Buckley worked well in the race and then put on a fierce sprint battle in the homestretch in which G showed that he was the man and that Dillon needs to eat more soup. Kit Callahan raced past a pack of runners in the final stretch as he continues to have strong season and could be very dangerous when he decides to whip out the racing spikes rather then the big clunky trainers that he has been wearing. Will Bell showed some improvement from prior races and looks to continue to build strength and confidence, and Kevin Hanley and Eli Howe finished a few steps apart. First year Pat Grimes ran to a 28:41 while Jack Seaver finished up the day for the team with a sub 29 clocking. With open New England's next week, the team will be looking to not only compete against a great field but also welcome back some runners who have been absent thus far as well as hopefully have everyone back to full health.