The cross country team ran at the ECAC Division I Women’s 6K Championship and IC4A Men’s 8K Championship last Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York.
The race marked the team’s last meet before the Leopards host the Patriot League Championships in early November.
The women’s team landed 18th out of 20 teams and the men’s team was 14th of 24. Junior Liz Borah and senior Emil Arangala led the women’s and men’s teams to a 77th and 15th-place finish, respectively.
“I felt really good during the race, I think both the team and myself are pretty confident going into Patriot Leagues,” said Arangala, who ran a personal best of 24:56.5.
According to Arangala, the men’s team goal for the meet was to place in the top 15, and his personal goal for the season was a time of 25 minutes – both of which were achieved. Behind Arangala for the Leopards was junior Justin Brown with a 25:20.9 finish for 37th.
Borah finished with a 22:48.5 time with senior Casey MacElhiney trailing her for a 22:53.9 finish.
“This race for me was really just an opportunity to get a race under my belt,” Borah said, citing her mentally challenging season.
“It definitely wasn’t my best race, by any means, but it was definitely a step,” she continued.
Arangala said this meet and the Paul Short Invitational from early this month — neither of which count towards Patriot League rankings — are “lower-pressure races” that help boost team confidence.
“We run a lot better when we’re just going out and having fun,” Arangala said, in contrast to the pressure of Patriot League meets.
Going into the Patriot League championship, both Borah and Arangala highlighted the team’s optimism for this year.
“I think we do have a good chance of getting a good placement overall,” Borah said. “I think we all need to be really ‘on’ that day, which we’re definitely capable of because we’ve been working really hard.”
Arangala mentioned that the injury of senior A.J. Sanford — “one of our top guys” — forced a goal shift for the men’s team, but the team is “still feeling pretty good” about their match-up to other Patriot League teams in the event.
He would “love” for the men’s team to place around fifth or sixth place in the championship after a disappointing finish last year.
“We’re all really excited about leagues,” Borah said.
The Leopards host the Patriot League Championships on Nov. 2.
