NEW HAVEN, Conn.. -- Two weeks after earning All-Ivy honors thanks to a seventh-place finish at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, junior Sean Kay yet again showed that he's in the form of his life as he placed 19th at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships on Friday. The result was good enough to place him in the All-Region team, an honor awarded to the top 25 finishers in the race.
Friday's performance is the culmination of months, even years, of hard work and dedication for Kay. This time last year, Kay, an economics major, had just completed his first cross country season for Yale. He demonstrated his talent and grit while being a scorer for the Bulldogs every time he raced. Since then, a combination of injury and illness led to frustrating indoor and outdoor track campaigns. This summer, with those woes behind him, Kay was able to take a step up. Workouts have become longer, weekly mileage has become higher, and, most importantly, he has become an unstoppable force of consistency in his training.
With each race this season, that progress has become more and more apparent. Kay was disappointed to open his season with 27th position at the HYP meet on Sept. 10, but bounced back in spectacular fashion three weeks later as he ran 23:29 to PR in the 8k by nire than a minute at the Paul Short Run. That upwards trajectory continued at Heps as Kay jostled with the leaders on his way to a seventh-place finish, 30 spots better than his result last year. So it was no surprise to see him return to Van Cortlandt Park on Friday and compete for the win once again.
Equally important as his personal results has been Kay's ability to lead Yale to some excellent team results too. The Elis' performance at the Paul Short Run, where Kay was part of a leading trio who all dipped under 23:30, stands out as a defining moment in which he helped to raise the standard for Yale cross country. At Heps, Kay led the Bulldogs to a battling fifth place, just five points away from a top-half finish, as they improved greatly from last year. Two weeks later, his strong Regionals race meant that Yale was able to turn the tables and get revenge on Dartmouth, the team that beat them out for fourth at Heps.
Regardless of the results, Kay's ability to lead by example in and outside of practice has pushed the team forward tremendously over the past few months. The team has grown stronger and developed new winning habits that will stand them in good stead for the upcoming track season and next year's cross country campaign. As for Kay, he'll take some time to recover, before getting back to work and looking to continue from where he left off at Regionals. If he can do that, then the sky's the limit.
