Cross Country Posts Competitive Times at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational

In its final tune-up meet before the Ivy League Championships, the Harvard cross country team struggled against a field comprising many of the top teams in the nation. Racing at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational in Madison, Wis., the men’s team took 32nd out of 36 teams, while the women finished 26th.

The invitational is one of the premier races in the country, boasting a slate of top-30 teams. Over 20 NCAA ranked squads, including five of the top 10 in the nation for both men and women, raced at the Zimmer Championship Course.

“From a competitive standpoint, that meet is as good as any national championship,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said.

Against top-tier opposition, co-captain Tom Purnell paced the men’s team, finishing first for the Crimson in the eight-kilometer race with a 24:27.4 mark. The senior ended up 100th overall.

Close behind Purnell, sophomore Ben Huffman and co-captain Chris Allen crossed the line just three seconds apart for 130th and 138th, respectively. Junior Brandon Price and sophomore Louis Colson rounded out the scoring for Harvard.

The Crimson came up short against the three Ancient Eight opponents that also raced in Madison. Harvard was beaten out by Columbia and Dartmouth and narrowly edged out by Princeton, which finished one spot ahead of the Crimson.

In the women’s 6k race, Sophomore Courtney Smith shined once again for Harvard and took 16th place overall. She covered the course in 20:04.2 to top the first finishers from a number of nationally ranked programs. Smith was only bested by one Ivy League competitor, Elizabeth Bird of Princeton, who edged the Crimson runner out by four seconds.

The sophomore improved vastly on her performance at the same event last year, when she finished 169th. She also moved up the Harvard ranks, transitioning from the Crimson’s fourth finisher in Wisconsin in 2014 to the team’s first scoring runner this time around.

“Smith continued to have an outstanding season and really solidified her place as one of the nation’s best distance runners,” Saretsky said.

Over a minute and 107 finishers separated Smith from the next finisher for Harvard, sophomore Elianna Shwayder, who finished 123rd. Captain Paige Kouba. senior Emma Payne, and freshman Kathryn Gillepsie filled out the scoring field for the Crimson behind Shwayder.

Payne put in an especially strong performance. The senior came into the race ranked as the sixth Harvard runner, but she was fourth across the line for the Crimson.

“[Payne] really stepped up this weekend,” coach Patrick Wales-Dinan said. “She continues to get better every week, and we’re really pleased with her performance.”

Although disappointed with the overall outcome, the team recognizes the value of competing against such formidable opponents.

“I think that the process of becoming a championship-level team is filled with success and disappointment equally, so I think in order to have a healthy dose of both of those experiences, you need to race the best people,” Wales-Dinan said. “I think that a race like this can serve as a very good barometer of what you’re doing, what’s working, and what you still need to focus on.”

The Crimson also sent a young group of runners to the Rothenberg Invite, hosted by Brown in Providence, R.I.

Freshman Samuel Oh had a breakout race, finishing first for Harvard and 16th overall. Sophomore Gabe Montague and freshmen Emmanuel D’Agostino, Colin Price, and Robert Hope all finished inside the top-35 to guide the Crimson to a fifth-place finish in a field of eight teams. The Cambridge squad finished second of three Ivy League teams at the meet, topping Brown but behind Dartmouth.

The Harvard women did not enter a full team in Providence, but junior Madeleine Ankhelyi put in an impressive showing for the Crimson to cross the line in 11th place.

Although the result in Madison was not what the team was hoping for, it has not changed the Crimson’s goals going forward.

“We started off our season with two really solid meets, and this was just a little bit of a bump in the road,” Wales-Dinan said. “We want to continue to capitalize on our early success and finish as high as we can at Ivy League Championships.”