BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Yale men's cross country team concluded its best season in recent years at the NCAA Regional Cross Country Championships Friday, finishing 12th -- five spots better than last year.
More than two feet of snow fell on the course over the past week. With the temperatures barely edging over thirty, the race organizers were forced to move the competition onto the road. This made for an extremely fast race in spite of the cold.
The young Bulldogs went out hard, putting themselves in contention. At the two-kilometer mark, the team was third, with Nick Dahl and Robert Miranda working together as they have all season in 17th and 20th respectively.
From there the race only sped up, the leading group pushing the pace relentlessly through the blizzard. The Bulldogs battled hard, continuing to support each other. Miranda and Dahl were joined by Connecticut native Brendan Murray, running in his first regional championship, and the three went through 5.6km in a blistering 16 minutes exactly. At that point, as the race moved into the second and final lap around the Buffalo course, the Elis were in 11th.
At 8.1km, Miranda had dug in to move up to 39th. In a clear demonstration of the pace of the race and the effect of the change of surface, he came through the checkpoint in 23.46, more than 30 seconds faster than his cross country 8km PR. Though Dahl had also moved up to 52nd, and all of the team's top five set 8km PRs, the Bulldogs had fallen back a spot to 12th.
For the majority of the team, this was their first 10km cross country – or road – race. Miranda capped off an incredible sophomore cross country season with 52nd place -- once again leading the team and breaking the magic 30-minute mark in the distance in the process, crossing the line in 29.55. Dahl was five spots behind, dipping under 30 minutes with his trademark kick finish. The third and fourth Bulldogs were both running their first regional race. Murray and first-year Henry Saul finished in 81st and 84th respectively. Rounding out the scoring five was the indispensable Cade Brown, who has scored in every race this season for the Bulldogs.
Though the team may travel back to New Haven feeling a little disappointed after finishing narrowly behind three Ivy League rivals (Cornell, Brown and Columbia finished in 9th, 10th and 11th respectively), when the Bulldogs reflect on the season as a whole, they ought to feel immensely proud of their achievements. Throughout the past three months, they have demonstrated drastic improvement from last year. This will only fuel the desire to come back better, stronger and faster next year.
Team Score - 280 points
- Robert Miranda - 52nd, 29.55.7
- Nick Dahl - 57th, 29.59.6
- Brendan Murray - 81st, 30.24.1
- Henry Saul - 84th, 30.27.2
- Cade Brown - 106th, 30.46.9
- Richard Sturtevant - 142nd, 31.15.0
- Hugh Sadler - 162nd, 31.38.1
