Runners Look To Get to Nationals

A bus will bring fans to the NCAA Regional Cross Country Meet at Franklin Park on Saturday. But if you’re anything like Dan Chenoweth, you’ll get there faster by running.

The junior became the first Crimson runner since 1995 to win the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships two weeks ago at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. This weekend, Chenoweth is looking to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row.

“You do everything you can to qualify,” Chenoweth said. “Make sure you take care of business. The goal isn’t necessarily to win.”

Last year, he took 42nd at NCAAs, but he took eighth at the Pre-National Invitational this fall.

“It’s not going to be a cakewalk,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “He’s ready for a good hard effort to get to the next level.”

Also looking to make a return to Nationals is junior Claire Richardson, who placed 144th at the meet a year ago. Last weekend, the junior took sixth at Heps, following an all-Princeton top five.

“[Claire’s] got the talent that it takes [and the] hard work that it takes,” Chenoweth said. “She’s shown that she can step up. [This weekend] it’s going to take strong performances from all the girls, and I think we’ll see that happen.”

While Richardson is something of a staple at the top spot, the rest of the Crimson scorers have traded places throughout the season, and there has been competition for a spot in the top seven.

“It’s a competitive year just to make that top seven,” Saretsky said. “They’ve all done a great job and have earned that spot.”

This level of depth throughout the team helped the women achieve a second-place finish at Heps, their strongest finish since 1995.

“The make of a great team is interchangeable parts,” Saretsky said. “[We have] seven young ladies who are ready to go out there and on any given day can go out and help this program.”

Some of these runners have made waves individually, such as freshman Sammy Silva, who won the Iona Meet of Champions in September.

But for the most part, it’s the pack mentality that has helped the women’s team succeed.

“My best friends are the people I run with,” junior captain Jamie Olson said. “We run really well together and we run well because we run together.”

The men have not had the same team success, and finished sixth at Heptagonals.

With captain Chas Gillespie out for the season with an injury, the team has relied on a young group of runners to back up Chenoweth.

“It’s been heartening to see we’ve got young guys willing to step up,” Chenoweth said. “Ideally, we’d have the old guys who are really experienced, but you have to get experience somewhere. In three years we’ll have a really great team.”

While this season may not give the young squad an opportunity to advance to nationals as a group, the team is looking to sneak up on people at NCAA Regionals.

“We want to beat some teams that we didn’t beat at Heps,” Chenoweth said. “Usually we’ve been able to get a couple of teams we didn’t get in the season.”

The NCAA Regionals will also give the women another chance to prove their merit. Though Richardson won’t get another crack at Princeton’s top five, she will have plenty of talented runners testing her mettle.

“[Claire’s] got a little fire under her,” Olson said. “She wanted to do a little better at Heps than she did.”

If the women do hope to earn a national berth, the familiar setting of the race can only help. Boston University is hosting the meet at Franklin Park, the Crimson’s home course and a frequent site for practices.

“It’s great to be on our home course,” Saretsky said. “We train there, we practice there. Our kids know the course really, really well.”

The last time Harvard competed at Franklin Park in the Harvard-Yale race on Oct. 2, both the men’s and women’s teams emerged victorious. Chenoweth and Richardson led the way with their individual wins, and the women had their largest margin of victory since 2001. The meet also featured something cross country runners don’t always enjoy—fans.

“[Fan attendance] is a really great motivation,” Olson said. “It makes it that much more fun.”

Certainly, the Crimson would like to have the same success against the entire region that it had against the Bulldogs, relying once again on the friendly crowd for motivation. Although similar domination may be unlikely, surprises and upsets in cross-country races are not unheard of.

“You can’t know what’s going to happen on a given day,” Richardson said. “You take care of what’s in your control. That’s my goal—to do what I can.”