BY MELISSA CRUZ

In print | Published October 11, 2007

This past Saturday, the Garnet men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational in Carlisle, Pa. Both teams raced against various surrounding schools including Elizabethtown College, Haverford College, Dickinson College and Shippensburg University. Despite the unpleasant weather conditions, both Garnet teams managed to come home with a sixth place finish out of all 21 competing teams.

The women’s team was again guided along the course by Ashley Davies ‘10, who completed the 4k race in 15 minutes and 42 seconds. Both Davies and Emma Stanley ’09 raced side-by-side throughought the entire course, averaging a mile-pace of 6:19, and landing them with 22nd and 23rd place finishes out of 169 total women runners. Stanley crossed the finish line just at Davies’ heel, with a time of 15:43. First-year Garnet cross country runner Caitlin Russel ’11 also wasted no time on the Dickinson Course. Russel ripped through the race in 15:48, placing 26th overall. Also in the top Garnet women finishers were Kathy Feeney ’09, who placed fourth on the team and 31st overall in a swift 16:02. Next came a ravenous pack of victory-hungry lady Quakers. The gang consisted of Nyika Corbett ’10 (16:11), Lauren DeLuca ’10 (16:12), Bess Ritter ’09 (16:14) and Ada Okum ’11 (16:15). The ladies took the 40th – 43rd places in the race. The Garnet ladies team came in sixth place overall, with an average time of 15:45.

The Swat men were led by Ross Weller ’08, who swept the course with a 15th place finish out of 170 male runners and a remarkable time of 12:47, averaging a 5:08 mile. Striding right behind him where Erik Saka ’09 (13:03) and Mickey Katz ’08 (13:04), stealing 25th and 27th places, respectively. Patrick Hartnett ’11 made sure he ran in the top five for the Garnet men and came in 35th overall at 13:09. The fifth Swat finisher was Jonnie Tompkins ’10, who landed in 41st place at 13:19. The Garnet guys finished with a sixth place rank out of the 21 teams who competed, their team averaging at 12:58.

Speaking about the team’s progress, sophomore Corbett said that, the team is doing really well, and we are also really proud of our freshmen. The women’s team has gained four first-year Swatties this year, and the men’s team has gained five. Several of these first-year runners are often finishing within the top-five runners on the teams. We are training hard, Ritter said.

Although the raceday weather conditions were less than favorable, both teams managed to rise to the occasion by running hard. It was hot, and the ground was hard from not having rain in such a long time, so that made things a little difficult. We still managed to do really well though, James Fairfax-Colombo ’10 said.

The teams have indeed been on an upward trend of improvement. In fact, some might even say that they are doing so well that the runners themselves even look fabulous. I love it when we run by windows. Our form just looks so great, Mickey Katz ’08 said.

The Garnet harriers, in their ever-fabulous form, will be racing again this Saturday as the women compete at the Seven Sisters Championships in Wellesley, Ma., and the men run the DeSales University Invitational at Center Valley, Pa.

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