BY JASON HONGIN YUN

In print | Published November 20, 2008

Last Saturday, marking the end of cross country season, the Swarthmore cross country teams competed in the NCAA Division III Mid-East Regional Meet hosted by Waynesburg University. The women’s team finished 7th out of forty-four teams, while the men’s team closed their season placing 19th out of forty-three teams.

The meet took place on a racecourse near a small airport in Waynesburg, Pa., where a plane actually took off from the runway a few feet away from the race course. Watching the plane taking off, team captain for the men’s team Daniel Hudson ’09 said, “As the plane prepared for its takeoff run, I was filled with excitement; the ability to fly surely represents a great accomplishment of the human race, and I understood this most trite takeoff as part of something bigger, more spectacular. Similarly, a race is not just another run.”

The Garnet men were led by team captain Erik Saka ’09, competing in his fourth meet (earning All-Region honors in 2006). Saka finished the 8k course with a time of 26:53, placing forty-eighth. Co-captain Dan Hodson ’09 finished next for the Garnet in 27:34. Patrick Harnett ’11, Jonnie Tompkins ’10, Connor Darby ’09, Alex Frye ’11, and David Riccadi ’10 also contributed strong finishes for the men.

“Even after six months of training, there is no guarantee that the favorite will prove to be the best on race day. Success comes not from simply running the course, but rather it is an emergent property of the integration of body, mind, and spirit at their peak,” Hodson said. “Watching someone race is not like watching someone run, just as watching a plane take off is not the same as watching a propeller spin.”

On the women’s side, now three-time All-Region selection Nyika Corbett ’10 finished the race in 23:37, placing thirty-third overall earning All-Region honors for the third straight year. Melissa Frick ’12 and two-time All-Region selection Emma Stanley ’09 closely followed Corbett. Kathy Feeney ’09, Bess Ritter ‘ 09, Ashley Davies ’10 and Rebecca Woo ’11 rounded up scoring for the women. On the whole, Swarthmore Men’s team finished 19th and the women’s team finished in 7th place. Despite some great individual performances, the team was disappointed with their results from the championship races.

Hudson, whose collegiate cross country career had came to an end after the meet, said that what constitutes a successful team is not stellar results but the experience one gets from the sports itself and teammates. “Riding 6 hours on the bus to Waynesburgh on Friday and 6 hours back on Saturday, I looked up and down the bus, and I saw some of my best friends.”

“Our final flight at Waynesburg was not just the end of my season, but the end of my cross country running at Swarthmore, and indeed the end of my cross country career on the whole. As far as success goes, the experiences I have had and the friends I have made will have been a positive influence over my last four years and hopefully over the years to come. For me, the season and the experience has been a success. Racing is more than running, and cross country is more than running,” he added.

Team captain Kathy Feeney ’09 also expressed deep affection for the team and the sport. “It still hasn’t actually hit me that Saturday was my last collegiate Cross Country race. I have been racing on school teams since I was in 7th grade, and while running is a lifelong sport, the Cross Country season has been an irreplaceable part of every year since that time,” she said.

“I want to say how proud I am to have been part of such a fantastic team. In terms of both personal performance and overall team cohesiveness, this has been the best season I’ve had during my four years … we have put in countless miles and hours pushing each other to be as strong and tough as we can be. More importantly, we’ve put in even more hours supporting each other as family would do. I am honored to have been a captain for a team of women as dedicated and caring as the ones on my team here at Swat,” Feeney said.

We’re an odd bunch but we wouldn’t want it any other way,” she added.

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