By Jack Pfeifer
The Stony Brook women’s cross country team – not even ranked Div. I – placed fifth in the big Notre Dame Invitational over the weekend, led by the great running of the twin sisters Lucy and Holly Van Dalen. Lucy won the race, defeating Sheila Reid of national-champion Villanova, and Holly finished sixth.
In this week’s updated national rankings, Stony Brook jumped all the way to 12th.
“This was a very exciting race for the twins and the team,” Coach Andy Ronan said. “Lucy and Holly are All-Americans on the track, and now with today’s performance they have put themselves in a position to achieve it in cross country.
“They and the team still have work to do, and we need to get better in order for us to achieve the goals set out for the season, but today was a wonderful start to the competitive season.”
The Van Dalens, who are from Wanganui, New Zealand, were joined by fellow Kiwis Annie Keown (24th), a sophomore from Auckland; Hayley Green (39th), junior from Wellington, and Olivia Burne (83rd), freshman from Palmerston North.
Villanova, the defending national champions, dominated the race, winning 64-118 over the Oregon Ducks. ‘Nova received all of the first-place votes in this week’s Div. I women’s poll. Reid finished second, four seconds behind Van Dalen, followed by Amanda Marino (5th), Bogdana Mimic (7th), Alison Smith (19th) and the freshman Emily Lipari (31st). Sarah Morrison and Bay Shore’s Callie Hogan were 6-7 for the Wildcats.
By defeating 2nd-ranked Florida State and 3rd-ranked Washington, Oregon jumped from 5th to 2nd in this week’s poll. Washington, which finished 6th, dropped out of the Top 10. Princeton, seventh at Notre Dame, slipped from 8th to 15th in the rankings. Alex Banfich led the Tigers in fourth place.
Oregon is one of four schools ranked in the Top 10 this week in Div. I, along with New Mexico, Colorado and surprising Duke. Coach Norm Ogilvie’s Blue Devils are 9th in the men, 10th in the women.
Wisconsin adidas Invitational
The Princeton men ran at Wisconsin and finished 3rd, behind Indiana and the host Badgers, with Donn Cabral leading the way, finishing first for Old Nassau, ahead of ‘mates Brian Leung (11th), Joe Stilin (23rd), Kyle Soloff (38th) and Mark Amirault (39th). The Princeton men are ranked 12th nationally this week.
Syracuse had an excellent meet, finishing 4th in the men’s race and winning the women’s, 9 points ahead of North Carolina. The Orange moved up to 7th in the women’s national rankings. Their runners in Madison were Katie Hursey (3rd), Lauren Penney (11th), Sarah Pagano (16th), Catherine DeSarle (19th), Heather Stephens (40th), Natalie Busby (42nd) and Cassie White (62nd).
The women’s race was won by Charlotte Browning, the reigning national champion, from the University of Florida. Kendra Schaaf, a recent transfer from Washington, led the way for UNC, in 4th. Michigan, 4th in the team scoring, was led by the two former Southern Regional (NJ) teammates, Danielle Tauro (6th) and Jillian Smith (17th).
Paul Short Invitational
Samuel Chelanga, Liberty’s reigning national men’s champion, made his first appearance of the season and won the Paul Short, on a muddy course at Bethlehem, Pa., by 15 seconds over Emil Heineking, who led Virginia to the team title, 17 points up on Georgetown.
Heineking was joined by fellow Cavaliers Ryan Collins (18th), Chris Foley (25th), Sean Keveren (43rd) and Andrew Revelle (44th).
Georgetown, led by Emily Infeld, dominated the women’s race, defeating UVa 34-98, and is now ranked 5th nationally. Infeld won the race, running 20:04 for 6k, and was followed by sophomore Emily Jones, 4th; surprising Ohio freshman Madeline Chambers, 6th, along with Kirsten Kasper (11th), grad student Renee Tomlin (12th), Katie McCafferty (14th), and another freshman, Virginian Joanna Stevens (17th).
“This was the first race of the year for Emily Infeld and Joanna Stevens,” Georgetown Coach Chris Miltenberg said. “Emily got off to a great start with the win. Knowing how well she progresses throughout the season makes this a really exciting sign.
“Joanna had been a bit under the weather all week and still competed extremely tough for a freshman. Now that we’ve got that first one under her belt, I know she’ll continue to improve.
“We’re really happy about where we’re at right now.”
Infeld and Tomlin both redshirted the 2010 outdoor season and ran PR 1500s in the spring, Infeld 4:13 and Tomloin 4:15.
The Hoyas were 2nd to Virginia in the men’s race, 132-149, led by Ayalew Taye, who finished 4th, behind Chelanga, Heineking and little-known Andrew Benford of Richmond. New Yorker Alex Bean was 31st as the Hoyas’ No. 3 finisher.
Columbia had a solid day, finishing 5th in the women’s race and 7th in the men’s. The Lions’ scorers were Caroline McDonough (13), Jackie Drouin (29), Erin Hays (52), Julie Quinn (53) and Noelle Van Ryssellboerg (58) for the women, and Tom Poland (27), Anthony Merra (34), Ben Veilleux (47), Justin Heck (59) and Dustin Martin (60) for the men.
The men’s Brown race was won by the Princeton “B” team, with a good score of 36 points led by Max Kaulbach, who won the race, defeating, among others, Peter Kosgei of Hamilton College, the reigning Div. III national champion. Kosgei finished 5th, 14 seconds behind Kaulbach. In the White race, Rowan scored a close 99-101 victory over Swarthmore, thanks to the 1-2 finish of Eric DuBois and Steve Mennitt.
The women’s Brown race was won by Rutgers, the White by Swarthmore. In the women’s Gold race, the surprise runnerup was Elise DeRoo of Colgate, 6 seconds back of Infeld. The Princeton graduate Liz Costello won the women’s Open race, just ahead of 3rd-place Phoebe Wright, last season’s NCAA 800 champion for Tennessee.
Others
Geneseo won the men’s and women’s races of its own invitational. Geneseo is ranked No. 1 Div. III in the Atlantic Region, ahead of fellow New York schools St. Lawrence and NYU.
Neely Spence finished 1st in the Great Louisville Classic, running 16:55 for 5k and helping Shippensburg to 4th place in the women’s team scoring; the men were 5th. Shippensburg is ranked No. 1 Div. II in the Atlantic Region for both squads.
In the Div. I rankings, Duke is the top-ranked men’s IC4A school, in 9th. Princeton (12) is the first Ivy team, Syracuse (14) the first Big East. The Iona men are 18th. In the women’s rankings, the Big East is now the top-ranked conference in the country, with Villanova (1), Georgetown (5) and Syracuse (7) in the Top 10. Princeton (15) is the top Ivy, Duke (10) the top ACC.
This Just In
Manhattan’s Swedish recruit Tobias Lundgren finished 1st in the Father Leeber Invitational on Sept. 25. Fairfield won the men’s team scoring, defeating Fordham and Manhattan, while Sacred Heart won the women’s.
In the Ted Owen Invitational that day in Connecticut, the Northeastern men lost by 1 point to Central Connecticut, 29-30, but their women won by the same margin, 46-47 over Rhode Island. UConn was 3rd.
In Franklin Park in Boston, the Bentley men won the Codfish Bowl over Bates, 72-88.