TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Yale men's cross country team finished 23rd in the prestigious Under Armour Pre-Nationals Invitational in Indiana this morning, underlining the Bulldogs' improvement from last year, when they finished 29th.
The race went out incredibly quickly, with the leaders covering the first kilometer in a staggering 2 minutes 35 seconds. Sophomore Robert Miranda went through three kilometers in 8.47, good for 51st place, with Nick Dahl just five seconds back but in 82nd place, demonstrating the quality of the competition. At the two-mile mark, Yale was 17th and the first of the Ivy League schools competing – including Dartmouth and Cornell.
At five kilometers the race had slowed, but only slightly. Miranda came through in a blistering 15.07. He had made up a few spots and was working hard in 46th, while Dahl had worked his way through the pack to 64th. At that point, Yale was 22nd, one place in front of Dartmouth. In the team competition, 17th to 22nd were separated by less than 10 points.
Dahl ran an almost perfectly paced race: with Miranda in sight, he closed his last 3000m in just 9.11, sprinting across the line in an impressive 47th position with a new PR of 24.25.7, with Miranda a mere two-tenths of a second behind in 48th. Cade Brown continued to prove himself a priceless asset to the team, finishing in 142nd with a time of 25.14.8, with Allen Siegler just behind, in 154th with a time of 25.19.0. The Bulldogs' top five was closed out by Will Laird, coming home in 184th with a time of 25.42.9, more than two minutes faster than his time at the race last year. The team finished 23rd, six points behind rivals Dartmouth.
The performance represents another clear step in the right direction on the journey to Van Cortlandt Park in two weeks' time. Dartmouth finished third at the Ivy League Championships last year. Yale finished seventh. As Dahl puts it:
"As a team, I believe today was another mark on the road to where we know we're headed. It's not a destination yet, and there's plenty more we have to prove both to the Ivy League and ourselves, but we showed resolve and we're learning bit by bit to trust ourselves.
Personally, I was very excited with how today played out. After a scorching start in 2:37 for the 1,000 meter mark, I knew the race would be about maintaining. I found a rhythm shortly after the hectic start and did my best to actively recover so that I'd have something for the end. All you can do is give yourself the chance to be gutsy when the end of the race comes, and I did that well enough to move forward in the second half."
The seven that raced today will now put the finishing touches on a project that began more than four months ago as they look to peak at "Heps" on Nov. 1. Meanwhile, the rest of the squad will head to the CCSU Mini Meet next week to determine who clinches the final few spots on the bus to New York.
