Results
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red cross country teams hosted their final home meet of the regular season on Friday at the Moakley Course with the 25th annual John Reif Memorial Run and got some valuable preparation for next week's Heptagonal Championships.
Racing on a course soaked by rain all fall, the Cornell men and women competed against squads from Buffalo, Cortland, SUNY-ESF and Syracuse along with several unattached and club competitors.
The heavy rains meant that for the second home meet this year, the infamous Gorge loop was again out of play as fallen trees and soaked trails made the loop impassable. The meet was instead held over the same course that the team used to host its season-opening meet against Army and Binghamton.
In the women's 5K, senior
Christine Smith made the most of her final home meet with a terrific race, leading the Big Red effort in placing third overall in 19:18.9, over 50 seconds faster than her first meet of the season on the same course against Army in early September. Freshman
Katie Johnson continued her impressive rookie season with a fine sixth-place effort of 19:27.9 while junior
Suzana Markolovic was 26 seconds faster than the season-opening meet with an eighth place time of 19:31.4.
Sophomore
Elizabeth Simpson also improved from the first meet in September, placing ninth in 19:47.3. Freshman
Corey Dowe rounded out the Big Red's top five with an 11th-place finish of 20:02.1. Junior
Neesha Schnepf was close behind in 13th and a time of 20:08.0 while freshman
Vrinda Jagota was Cornell's seventh finisher with a 14th-place effort of 20:10.8.
Senior
Shelby Herman ran a terrific second half of the race to place 16th in 20:25.8. Also finishing in the top 25 of the field were sophomores
Erin Loughlin (18th, 20:36.9, nearly a minute faster than six weeks ago),
Cara Janeczko (19th, 20:33.6) and
Leah Ferrara (20th, 20:36.9), junior Liz Reamer (21st, 20:56.4), freshman
Casey Phlegar (22nd, 21:06.9), junior
Amanda Steffy (24th, 21:12.4) and sophomore
Lauren Lapointe (25th, 21:14.0). The women's race winner was Angelica Peck, an unattached runner who ran 19:08.5.
With three Heps spots on the line to fill out the Big Red's 12-man roster for next week's championsip, the Cornell men had a tight pack bunched together much of the 8K race. Indeed, the team's top five was separated by fewer than two seconds and the finish-line drama was memorable. So close was the Big Red finish that a review of the finish-line video was necessary.
Sophomore
John Schilkowsky demonstrated that his middle distance abilities do, in fact, translate to real capability over hill and dale with an 11th-place finish of 27:35.9 to lead Cornell. Classmate
Christopher Christoff was two steps behind, running 27:36.2 for 12th. And in a photo finish, sophomore
Andrew Herring out-leaned freshman
Kieran Kinnare 27:36.6 to 27:36.7, as Herring claimed the final spot for coach Robert Johnson's squad next week at the Heps.
Freshman
David Melly gave another very good effort to finish right with the lead Cornell pack, running 27:37.3 for 15th. Also placing in the top 25 for Cornell was freshman
Sam Belcher (22nd, 28:24.4), freshman
Van Adams (23rd, 28:30.8) and sophomore
Michael Conroy (24th, 28:39.2). The overall race winner was Martin Hehir, competing unattached, who ran 26:40.7.
With the regular season now complete, the Big Red will compete next at the Cross Country Heps at Princeton on Oct. 29th. Princeton's cross country course is at West Windsor Fields and the men's 8K race is at 11:00 a.m. with the women's 6K race scheduled for noon.
