Get ready to dance, Who's going to NCAA XC Nationals

Get ready to Dance...

The following Maine natives have punches their tickets to the NCAA XC National Championship next Saturday.

Northeast Regional Results | Great Lakes Regional Results |

D1

Great Lakes Regional

Purdue junior Matt McClintock will be making his third consecutive trip to Terre Haute as he finished 3rd overall running 30:17 for the 10k, good for a 4:52 per mile average.

"Feels great to be making the trip back to Terre Haute again. I feel I have been getting stronger every race and with some rest this week I look to make a run at the top 10. It is the last 10 kilometers of the cross country season and as jack Daniels says "run the first two Thirds of the race with you head, run the last third with your heart." McClintock said via email.

A year ago the Madison native finished 37th in the National Championship race, with another year under his belt he has his sights set on earning All-American honors next weekend.

Our friends at Flotrack caught up with Matt after the race

 

Midwest Regional

Freshman Dan Curts of Iowa State led his Cyclones to a 3rd place team finish but more importantly finished 5th overall individually to book his ticket to Indiana next Saturday. Quite a performance for Curts, who was running in his first 10k of his career, his finishing time was 30:16.4.

Curts established himself in the lead group early on as he covered the first 2k of the race in 6:08.8, at 3k he slipped back to 20th but over the next 4k regain his position back to the top 15. At the halfway point hit in 15:31.9, Curts slipped back to 28th but just 2 seconds out of first. Over the next 1k, Dan moved back up to 18th, and at the 7k mark he continued to keep moving forward as he got up to 14th place. The last 3k Dan showed his pedigree as he moved into the top 10 at 9th at the 8k mark as he crossed in 24:29.2. At this point he was racing further than he has in the past, but that didn't slow him down at all as he closed it out with a 2:50.1 last 1k as he moved up 7 more spots.

 

While Bethanie Brown didn't make the trip to race in the Regionals, Coach McDonough said she's ready to go in this interview below. We also reached out to Bethanie who says she's been dealing with an inflamed tendon in her ankle, but has been running for the past 2 weeks and workouts have been going well.

 

 

 

Northeast Regional

At Van Cortlandt Park in New York Connecticut's Emily Durgin punched her ticket to the national championship via her 12th pace finish over the 6k course, her finishing time was 20:30.98, good for a 5:31 per mile average. Durgin who placed 16th in the Regional a year ago moved up 4 places was 12 seconds faster than a year ago.

"I am very excited for Lauren and I. It's her last year competing for uconn so we are very excited that we both advanced to the National meet!, The ultimate goal going into any season is to win conference and advance to nationals Our team is very young so coming in 2nd at conference and going 1-2 with Lauren was an accomplishment making nationals as an individual was the next goal and Lauren and I knew we would be in the mix. I must say yesterday's race was tough for me and I did not think I would be in but everything happens for a reason and having 5 teams make it pushed me in." Durgin said in a post-race email.

 

The Colby College men won the New England Divison Three New England title on Saturday to automatically qualify for the National Championship (photo by Julie Millard)

D3

New England Results

The Colby College men won the New England Division title by 6 points over Amherst, the Mules tallied 63 points to secure an automatic bid to the National Championship. The lineup for Colby includes 3 Maine natives, Jeff Hale (Waterville), Silas Eastman (Frybeurg) & Stefan Sandreuter (Greely). Hale was 7th overall running 25:37.1, while Eastman was just 5 seconds back in 13th place. Sandreuter was the 6th runner for Colby finihsing in 65th place.

 1.    63  Colby                    (25:43.9  128:39.2 0:26.1)
=======================================
  1      6  David Chelimo             25:33.0     5     21  Ben Lester                25:59.1
  2      7  Jeff Hale                 25:37.1     6   ( 65) Stefan Sandreuter         26:52.7
  3     13  Silas Eastman             25:42.5     7   (129) Griffin Gagnon            27:46.2
  4     16  Charlie Coffman           25:47.5
  

 

Yarmouth native Ben Decker running for the Ephs of Williams was the 5th runner in 32nd place. Decker ran 26:16.5 over the tough 8k layout, he was thr 4th best freshman in the meet. While not official yet, Williams College who was ranked #1 in New England entering the meet, finished 4th and are expected to earn an at large bid to Nationals.

Bowdoin edged in state rival Bates 195-266 as they finished 7th & 8th respectively.

 

  7.   195  Bowdoin                  (26:24.1  132:00.2 0:31.0)
=======================================
  1     28  Avery Wentworth           26:08.7     5     54  Will Ossoff               26:39.7
  2     31  Kevin Hoose               26:15.2     6   ( 66) Calvin Henry              26:52.9
  3     40  Matt Jacobson             26:27.5     7   (110) Ryan Barrett              27:33.9
  4     42  Bridger Tomlin            26:29.1
  
  8.   266  Bates                    (26:37.1  133:05.3 1:11.4)
=======================================
  1     18  John Stansel              25:52.3     5     78  Evan Ferguson-Hull        27:03.7
  2     34  Allen Sumrall             26:17.9     6   ( 87) Michael Horowicz          27:13.7
  3     67  Michael Creedon           26:54.5     7   (124) Taylor Saucier            27:44.4
  4     69  Zach Magin                26:56.9

 

Middlebury's Erzsebet Nagy helped her team to a runner-up finish securing an automatic spot in the D3 National XC Championship (photo by Julie Millard)

 

On the women's side Erzsebet Nagy (Lawrence) helped Middlebury to a runner-up team finish and an automatic qualifying spot in the National Championship. Nagy who has battled injuries all fall was the 5th runner for the Panthers finishing 31st overall. Nagy's time for the 6k course was 22:47.3.

Taylor Bickford (Bonny Eagle) running for Wellesley was 28th overall and the top Maine native in the race. Bickford covered the 6k course in 22:43.2, her team finished 5th and earned a trip to the National Championship.

Also making the trip to Nationals will be Samantha Cox (Bonny Eagle) who was the 7th runner for Tufts who finished 6th overall earned an at-large bid

Colby led the way for Maine teams with an 8th place finish, followed by the University of New England in 9th & Bates College in 10th.

 

 8.   250  Colby                    (23:12.6  116:02.7 1:30.6)
=======================================
  1     15  Alanna McDonough          22:27.4     5     85  Kathryn Metayer           23:58.0
  2     30  Krista Brown              22:43.8     6   ( 99) Margaret Parrish          24:15.4
  3     39  Taylor Kennedy            23:00.4     7   (107) Dylan Alles               24:21.2
  4     81  Catherine Alden           23:53.1
  
  9.   305  U. of New England        (23:26.8  117:13.6 1:34.9)
=======================================
  1     33  Tiana Thomas              22:55.3     5    117  Annelise Donahue          24:30.2
  2     43  Lexi Basiliere            23:03.9     6   (134) Taxia Arabatsis           24:45.5
  3     51  Brittney Sorbello         23:15.8     7   (180) Colleen Clark             25:24.1
  4     61  Angel Waters              23:28.4
  
 10.   340  Bates                    (23:36.5  118:02.4 1:01.5)
=======================================
  1     37  Elena Jay                 22:58.9     5     88  Jessica Wilson            24:00.4
  2     57  Isabelle Unger            23:24.8     6   ( 97) Erica Gagnon              24:14.3
  3     74  Molly Chisholm            23:43.0     7   ( 98) Addie Cullenberg          24:14.4
  4     84  Katherine Cook            23:55.3