cross country teams had a strong end to their season, with the women’s team placing tenth and the men’s team placing eighth at the 2019 NCAA Division III Championships. The meet was held by Spalding at Tom Sawyer State Park on Nov. 23.
In their 21st consecutive NCAA Championship appearance, the women’s team was led by senior Genny Corcoran, who finished off her season as national runner-up. Although they finished tenth at nationals, The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III poll ranked the women’s team ninth nationally and first in the region.
“We ended up getting tenth, which was projected for us. So that was pretty good that we got what was projected; everyone did pretty well for themselves. I think it was just a big accomplishment for us to make it to nationals overall since a large majority of us haven't made it there before,” junior Mariellen Penzer said, who finished 131st with a time of 23:03.5 at nationals.
For the men’s team, this was their 17th consecutive championship appearance and they were led by junior Matt Sayre, who earned All-American status with a 23rd place finish, and senior Luke Holtzman, who earned All-American status as well with a 26th place finish.
Senior Sean McEnany, the conference runner of the year and Atlantic regional runner up, unfortunately lost his shoe in the mud during his race. Holtzman described how this tragic incident affected the team’s overall morale, “As a team we left happy, but a little upset because our top runner all year, unfortunately, lost a shoe. As a result, our team finish wasn't as great as we are hoping for.”
Despite the unfortunate shoe mishap, the men’s cross country team was able to have a very accomplished season with its eighth top-ten finish since 2008. This is Division III’s longest streak of a school qualifying both the men’s and women’s teams to the NCAA Championships.
Penzer reflected on the season, “I think the season went great. It was super fun and it was a great group of girls who worked really hard together to get to where we want to be with our goals and fitness.”
Looking towards the future, the men’s team is losing four seniors from their top eight runners, but they are still in strong shape, according to Holtzman.
“Sophomore Matthew Sayre was our number one runner at nationals and will be one of a top 15 [runners] in the nation,” Holtzman said. “We have a few other underclassmen, [one being] Riley Grossman—who's currently a sophomore—as [well as] Ezra Ruggles, who's currently a freshman [and] Nick Andrews, who's currently a freshman. [They] all had some stellar campaigns and have done some great things for [the team], given how young they are.”
The women’s team also looks to be in good shape with a good amount of talented runners returning this year.
“I think we have a lot of older girls who are ready to show the younger girls the way. And we already had two freshmen at nationals, which was an amazing accomplishment for them and for our team. Honestly, just improvement I think on the national field,” Penzer said.
Kara Burke contributed to this article.