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BY JASON HONGIN YUN

In print | Published October 23, 2008

Over fall break, the Garnet men’s and women’s cross country teams achieved outstanding results. On October 11th, the Swarthmore men competed at the DeSales University Invitational where they earned a fifth place out of twenty teams, while the Swarthmore women took first place at the annual 27th Seven Sisters Cross Country Championship held at Smith College, winning their second title since 1989.

At the DeSales University Invitational, the Swarthmore men’s team did exceptionally well, with its three runners finishing in the top ten. The Garnet were led by their team captain, Daniel Hodson ’09. Hodson, who is said to have had the best race of his collegiate career, completed the 8k race with a remarkable time of 27:16:96, finishing fifth out of 180 competitors at the invite. Closely following Hodson were Erik Saka ‘09 and Patrick Harnett ‘11, who placed sixth and eighth respectively, with times of 27:22.07 and 27:28.33. Rounding out the scoring runners for the Swarthmore team were juniors Jonathan Tompkins and David Riccardi, who placed 66th and 101st.

“DeSales is particularly awesome because of its downhill start, which promotes a fast first mile,” Hodson said, “and they give shirts out to the top twenty. We had three guys get shirts, all in the top ten, so that’s a big deal.” Hodson also commented on missing runners, saying that the team would have had better results with them, and also on his teammate David Riccardi. “He forgot his uniform and flats, so that cost him 1-2 minutes. Figure about 15-20 seconds a mile for spikes instead of trainers.” Overall, the men’s team finished with a total score of 163, earning them fifth place. Swarthmore finished behind Salisbury University (46), Rowan Univeristy (91), host DeSales University (108) and Scranton (149). (In cross country, points are the sum of a team’s top-five runners’ places. The team with the lowest scores wins.)

On the women’s side, the three top Swarthmore runners made the 2008 Seven Sisters All-Tournament team. The team was led by Annyika Corbett ’10, who finished the race with a time of 19:31.80 and placed second out of seventy-five runners. Melissa Frick ‘12, who placed third individually, finished the race with a time of 19:43.30. Co-captain Bess Ritter ‘09 finished the race at 20:03.90, for a seventh place finish to mark a personal best at the Seven Sisters Championship.
Closely following Ritter, seniors Emma Stanley and Kathy Feeney completed race at 20:16.90 and 20:27.30, placing in the eleventh and twelfth spots. Lauren Deluca ’10, Hannah Rose ’12, Faith Pampel ’09, and Ashley Davies ’10 all crossed the finish line in sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth places.

“The results really demonstrate the team’s depth this year – we had 8 runners in the top 18 finishers and our spread was really low (35),” said Bess Ritter.

The women’s team totaled 35 points, overwhelmingly out-pacing five other schools at the invitational: Smith (65), Vassar (73), Wellesley (78), Bryn Mawr (144) and Mount Holyoke (145).

Coach Peter Carroll, commenting on the terrain of the race, said that the Seven Sisters Invitational and the DeSales University Invitational courses were more “challenging” compared to other races that the teams ran in the past. Unlike the Paul Short Invitational where the both Garnet men’s and women’s team competed three weeks ago, the course at the Seven Sisters Invitational tends to be hilly. The Swarthmore teams, however, proved to be faster on the tougher courses. “I think the Smith course played well into our teams’ strengths. [It was] more of a strength kind of race than a race like Paul Short, which is really flat and fast, and I think our team was able to really use the hills as an advantage,” Bess Ritter said. “Kids ran really smart,” Coach Carroll also said.

Faith Pampel ’09, co-captain for the women’s team, said that the victory would not have been achieved without the dedication of everyone on the team and the hard workout that the team had done. “People are giving the extra time and energy it takes to be a better team, whether [by] doing core exercises after every run, cross-training, working through new stretching techniques, sitting in an ice bath to keep tabs on injury or showing up for our customary 8:30 a.m. long runs on chilly Sunday mornings while the rest of campus sleeps in.  Also important to note is that cross country training does not start in the fall. It starts at the beginning of the summer.  As far as I can tell, everyone put in the time each day to log those long, lonely miles in the summer heat.  I’m proud of what everyone has done and is doing, and hopefully the work will continue to pay off in the greatest way possible.”

For both men’s and women’s teams, last meets serve as a transition point from the regular season to the championship part of the season. Coach Carroll said that the teams were done with the “introduction courses” of the season, and will focus on preparing for the upcoming championship races. As the teams head into the championship part of the season, he will drop the volume of training while increasing the intensity; the teams will move away from the 20 X 200 to the 8-10 X 200 “balls out” over the next couple weeks.

Expectations for the championship races are high. Coach Carroll expects the women’s team to be in the top-three and the men’s team to be in the top half at the next race.

The team’s exceptional results from the previous races seem favorable to such prospective. “Expectations for the upcoming meets?  I expect that we’ll be tough as nails,” Faith Pampel said.
The Garnet men’s and women’s teams’ next race will be Centennial Conference Championships on Saturday, November 1st.

The meet will be held at Gettysburg College, where the Garnet will race against some of the strongest teams in their region.

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