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
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