It was definitely one of the rougher weekends for the UR cross country team. After finishing the regular season with their best meet all year, the men’s team finished eighth at the UAA Championships, starting the postseason in disappointing fashion.
“We ran poorly. We had one breakthrough performance in [junior] Terence Cordner, two ran adequate, and the others ran subpar. We just didn’t rise to the occasion,” Head Coach John Izzo said.
Finishing first for the men was junior Dan Duett, who ran the eight- kilometer race in 26:40, finishing 25th. Cordner was second for the men with a 41st place finish overall, completing the race in 27:10. Finishing in 46th place, sophomore Ian Slattery ran the race in 27:21. He was closely followed by sophomore Chris Nolan, who ran 27:29 to finish 47th. Freshman Ben Snyder completed the top five for the men, finishing 49th with a time of 27:39. Also competing were junior Peter Nabozny and sophomore Kevin McGettrick, who were 52nd and 55th overall.
“We were all very disappointed. They weren’t satisfied – they were angry at themselves,” Izzo said.
Despite the disappointing finish, the goal for the upcoming State Championship meet remains the same it has been all season – to finish in the top five.
“We’ll bounce back. We had a great workout earlier this week, which proved we’re in great shape,” Izzo said.
Women’s Results
The women’s cross country team was unable to recover from its poor showing at the UR Invitational two weeks earlier, finishing last out of the eight teams competing in the UAA Championships. Although a number of the women set new personal bests, the overall result of the meet put a damper on any personal achievements that, with any other outcome, might have been cause for great excitement.
“I was disappointed because we had already beaten two of those teams earlier in the year. I felt that despite our injuries and illnesses we were still capable of beating them again,” Head Coach Barbara Hartwig said.
As the race started, it appeared that the team was about to snap out of its late season funk and return to the way it performed early on.
“I thought we were focused [going in] and we got out fairly quickly, and then many people just settled. We settled down way too much and the race just passed us by,” Hartwig said.
The leading finisher for the UR women in the six-kilometer race was senior Erika Wasserstein, who was 28th overall with a time of 24:18. Senior Mary LeBrun came in right behind her, earning 29th place with a 24:24 finish. With a 41st place finish, senior Lisa Brassaw crossed the line in 25:08.
She was closely trailed by junior Elizabeth Boerman, who finished in 25:10, earning 43rdplace. Sophomore Kate Pohlman was next to finish for the women, doing so in 25:35. Coming in 50th overall was freshman Nora Craighead, who ran the race in 25:43. Katherine McKenzie finished ten seconds later, earning 52nd place with a time of 25:53.
The women will have a chance to redeem themselves this Saturday when they head to New York State Championships in Saratoga.
“My hope is that people will be uncomfortable with how we did at UAA’s and will be motivated to compete well at States. They seem excited about it,” Hartwig said.
If the team can bounce back and perform at the level that they are capable of, they could finish among the top teams at the State Championship meet.
Swidler can be reached at dswidler@campustimes.org.
