Korolev Qualifies for Cross Country Championships

Maksim Korolev may have been the first to cross the finish line at the NCAA Northeast Regionals on Friday, but his race is not over yet.

And neither is the race for the Harvard men’s cross country team, which captured one of 13 at-large bids for the NCAA Championships selected by the NCAA Track and Field Committee. It is the first time since 1979 that the Crimson men have qualified for nationals.

Korolev’s covered the 10k course in a time of 30:11, which put him a full seven seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Iona’s Matt Gillespie.

The men’s team as a whole was looking to use this race as a chance to qualify for nationals. Syracuse and Columbia took home first and second place, respectively, at the meet to secure the region’s two bids to nationals. By placing sixth, Harvard was unable to guarantee a spot, and was forced to wait until the NCAA announced Saturday’s at-large bids.

Co-captain James Leakos had a 33rd place finish with a time of 30:59, while junior Will Geiken (31:10), and sophomores Tom Purnell (31:14.0) and Chris Allen (31:17.3) took the three through five spots for Harvard.

Although the race’s lead pack got out quickly in the race, the paced settled down and Korolev and Leakos led the front group for most of the race. Around the 6k mark, other runners gave Korolev some pressure, but no one was able to catch up to the eventual winner.

Despite getting off to a strong start, Leakos was unable to maintain his spot at the front of the group, as he has been battling a leg injury in recent weeks. Leakos has consistently been Harvard’s number two runner, and it was unclear prior to racing whether or not he would be at full strength.

“Anytime you’re dealing with injury and working through when things aren’t 100 percent, there’s always a bit of a question,” Crimson coach Jason Saretsky said. “He’s got a bright future in the sport, and we don’t want to do anything that would compromise his long-term success. He felt ready to go, and he was excited to go out there and give his best for the team.”

During the championship season, the men’s teams transition from 8k races to 10ks, an adjustment that changes how the team prepares for meets.

“Some guys really benefitted from the longer distance,” Saretsky said. “You’re able to put all those miles and miles of training into use. This is what we’ve been gearing for all year, this championship part of the season.”

However, with the increased distance comes increased fatigue. With only eight days between the regional meet and nationals next week at Indiana State, rest will be key to the Crimson success.

“I’m just being really conservative,” Korolev said. “The eight days is really short between 10ks. Normally we give ourselves at least two weeks between 8ks, and now we have eight days between 10ks. [We’re] just trying to recover at this point. All the work is done.”

The women’s team finished sixth overall in the meet, with junior Viviana Hanley leading the Crimson women in 18th place with a 6k time of 20:46.1. The team also looked to secure an at-large bid after all regional races were complete, but was unable to capture a spot. Captain Morgan Kelly, junior Molly Renfer, freshman Madeleine Ankhelyi, and senior Emily Reese rounded out the Harvard women’s scoring runners.

Providence and Dartmouth picked up the Northeast region’s guaranteed spots at nationals by finishing in first and second place at the meet, respectively.

“Overall, we definitely were hoping for a little bit more out of regionals,” women’s coach Priscilla Bayley said. “I’m not going to say that we weren’t disappointed. We had a lot of things to be thankful for and a couple glimpses of some good times ahead. Two of our top seven had never really run cross country seriously before, including our No. 3 Molly Renfer, who is normally a middle-distance runner for the team.”

After qualifying for nationals last season for the first time since 1983, the women’s team hopes to continue to improve its depth and consistency. According to Bayley, the current top 10 women’s runners all have run times faster than the squad’s top runner from two years ago.

“We had a lot of different races where the pieces were there,” Bailey said. “We just didn’t put them together on the same day.”