The men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Colgate to compete in the Patriot League Championship last Saturday. The women finished sixth out of 10 teams, their best finish since the 2020-21 season, while the men finished in ninth, second to last. Army won the women’s title and Navy grabbed the men’s.
Sophomore Liz Borah was the top finisher for the Leopards, placing 23rd on the six-kilometer course. Senior Emma Lorey was close behind in 34th place. Junior Casey MacElhiney (66th), sophomore Kira Marr (67th) and freshman Ava Severino (72nd) rounded out the scoring runners for the team. The Leopards tallied 203 points, well behind Army’s winning score of 29.
Borah, who placed 48th in her first Patriot League race last year, said that her goal for the race was to place in the top 30 — a goal which she achieved.
“This year we really wanted to get sixth,” Borah continued. “That was a big thing that our coach kept saying to us like, ‘You can be the sixth best team in the league,’ and that was a big deal for us.”
The men struggled on Colgate’s course, placing ninth in the league with 256 points. Sophomore Francis Dougherty wrote in an email that the steep hills on the course were difficult to adjust to.
“It’s definitely one of the harder, if not the hardest course I’ve raced in college,” Dougherty wrote. “There’s a lot of elevation and hills and it’s very narrow.”
Junior Emil Arangala paced the rest of the Leopards in the eight-kilometer race, which put him in 40th place.
Senior Sam Fowler, who was the third finisher for the men in 74th, said that assistant coach Anthony Dentino wanted the team to get out fast and then maintain its pace as the course became hillier.
Fowler, who likes to start races conservatively then gain ground at the end, said that he thought the race plan backfired a little.
“It bit us in the butt a little, going out fast,” Fowler said. “Some of the guys weren’t able to turn over in those last couple of miles of the race.”
Dougherty, who finished in 85th, wrote that the team was not satisfied with its performance.
“I think we performed below our expectations and capabilities,” Dougherty wrote. “It is definitely a step backwards and it wasn’t our A day, but we’re hopeful to bounce back and use it as motivation as we finish the season and transition into next season.”
The men and women will lace up again next Friday for the NCAA District Championship, which will be hosted by Lehigh this year. Borah said that the team is going to treat the race as a “celebration” of its season.
“I feel like this is a good opportunity for people who want to [set a personal record] to [do so],” Borah said.
The men, on the other hand, feel like they have something to prove.
“We’ve got a chip on our shoulder, we’re hungry to do better,” Fowler said. “Patriot Leagues was definitely not our best race and it’s definitely a terrible indication of who we are and how strong of a team we are.”
