Cross Country Teams Finish Season With ECAC, IC4A Meets

The Harvard men's and women's cross-country teams closed out their seasons on a misty and rainy day this past Saturday at George Mason in Leesburg, Va.

The two meets in which the teams competed, the ECAC finals for the women and the IC4A division finals for the men, were the last of the season in what has been both an inspiring and discouraging year for the cross-country programs.

The Men

Despite finishing fifth and failing to advance to national competition, the men's team has significant reason to look forward to many successful future years.

Two rookies, Ian Carswell and Killian Lonergan, followed by sophomore Brian Walsh, led the Harvard runners to the fifth place finish in the New England region. The team ended up with a 15th place finsh in the IC4A meet overall.

Top-finisher Carswell came in 90 seconds behind the leader. His tenth place finish out of a field of 250 left him pretty satisfied. "I was pretty happy with my performance," said Carswell, "And we did very well as a team."

While nationals were out of reach this year, prospects for next season look very good.

Only two men's runners are graduating, and much of the team is young.

"The youth of this team is its greatest asset," senior captain Steven Kelts said. "It looks that they'll be heading to nationals in many of the coming years."

The Women

Plagued with injuries, the women's team did not fare as well as it hoped in the ECAC this Saturday.

"It was the type of race you really need to know how to run," senior captain Alais Griffen said, "And all of the people who had experience were injured."

Of the five women who had run in the divisional race last year, only one had graduated. The other four, however, were lost to injury in the past several weeks.

The top three finishers for Harvard, Junior Meredith Fitzgerald, freshman Jenny Martin and junior Kelly Venke, still ran well for the team.

Official results were not available, but Harvard Coach Frank Haggerty estimated that the women placed sixth or seventh in the region.

"Given the circumstances the last couple weeks," Haggerty said, "With our number one runner spraining her ankle, our captain, who qualified for national last year, has tendonitis in her knees--even with our problems we still had a very good season."

Next Season

The outlook for both teams is excellent for next year, according Haggerty.

"It will be a matter of health. This sport is extremely demanding," Haggerty said.