A cold, foggy morning turned into a beautiful day in Lewisburg, Pa. last Saturday just in time for the men’s and women’s cross country teams to compete in the Patriot League Championships at Bucknell University.
Out of the 10 teams competing, Lafayette’s men’s team finished in seventh with 214 points, while the women’s team finished in eighth place with 212 points. Navy placed first in both the men’s and women’s races.
While individuals are ranked by the order in which they finish, team rankings are determined through a point-based system. According to senior Becky Hartman, teams can race up to 12 runners, but only the top five runners’ scores are counted towards the team score. The score is created by adding up the place numbers of those five runners to get a total point score – the lower the score, the better.
Senior Bobby Oehrlein led the way for Lafayette on the men’s side, finishing in 11th place out of 113 runners with a time of 25:06.7. This race was on the 8,050-meter course, which is roughly five miles.
“I was happy with my performance. I had some struggles earlier in the season. I took three weeks off due to an Achilles injury … so to get 11th, I was pretty pleased with that,” Oehrlein said. “I finished slightly higher the last two years, but I would say [the league] was more competitive this year.”
Other top finishers for the men included sophomore Emil Arangala (45th, 26:06.2), freshman Titan Casey (68th, 26:39.3) and sophomore Alex Gent (80th, 27:06.2).
Oehrlein was pleased with how the team performed, especially because the program has a lot of young athletes.
“We have a good group of guys. They all get along and they’re very young. So the younger guys bring a lot of energy to the table,” he said. “I think we were all running for each other and everyone wanted to do well for each other as teammates and for Lafayette in general … Something that we always try to push is that we are one team.”
Hartman was the Leopards’ top finisher on the women’s side, finishing 30th out of 104 runners with a time of 22:14.6. This course was 5,950 meters, or about 3.7 miles.
Following Hartman was senior Rachel Hurley (44th, 22:42.5), freshman Elizabeth Borah (48th, 22:47.7) and junior Emma Lorey (71st, 23:34.6).
“We had run the course before and some of the other team’s hadn’t. We knew the strengths and weaknesses of the course,” Hartman said. “We have a bunch of hills here and there was a hill on that course, so [the strategy] was to attack the hill.”
Both teams will compete in the NCAA District Championship at State College, Pa. next Friday, Nov. 11.
