CROSS COUNTRY | GU Excels at Pre-Nationals

The Georgetown cross country program continued its march towards postseason success this weekend when the women’s team finished fourth and the men’s ninth in the NCAA Pre-National Invitational in Louisville, Ky.

The event, held on the same course as this year’s national championship, was designed to prepare the women’s team for a title defense — that is exactly what Head Coach Michael Smith thought his team did.

“They ran exactly how I wanted [them] to, which is the most important thing when evaluating their performance,” Smith said. “They executed their race plan perfectly, and that same race plan in five weeks will deliver some great outcomes.”

The Blue and Gray was led by sophomore Annamarie Maag, who took 22nd place with a time of 20:32. She was followed by teammates junior Madeline Chambers, who finished in 20:43 and took 30th, and senior Rachel Schneider, who was 33rd with a time of 20:47.

Senior Kirsten Kasper and sophomore Katrina Coogan rounded out the scoring for Georgetown, coming in 38th and 40th places, respectively, both with an offical time of 20:54 but with Kasper finishing 0.4 seconds ahead of Coogan.

“It’s really exciting right now, I think the team has the potential to be one of the best in the country if they keep racing and training this well,” Smith said.

The men’s team also kept up its streak of promising results, finishing ninth of 40 teams despite withholding graduate student Mark Dennin, arguably its best runner, for training purposes.

“Obviously, you never sit there after a meet and think that ninth place is good, but our team is making a lot of progress,” assistant coach Brandon Bonsey said. “We had a lot of guys that had great races, and our training is great, so when the time comes, we will be ready to go.”

In Dennin’s absence, front running duties were taken over by senior Andrew Springer, who finished 36th with a time of 23:56.

He was followed by freshman Darren Fahy, who was 70th, wrapping up his first collegiate race in 24:14 flat. Sophomore Miles Schoedler was hot on Fahy’s heels, taking 71st in 24:14.04.

“I was really happy with how Darren and Miles stepped up this weekend,” Bonsey said.

The final two scorers for the Blue and Gray were junior Max Darrah and senior Ben Furcht, who took 86th and 88th places, with times of 24:21 and 24:22, respectively.

“We’re going to get ready to run well at Big Easts. We’re going to make sure the guys are rested and ready to run their best there,” Bonsey said. “The reason that we didn’t cut back for the regular season meet was so we can be at our best for the postseason.”

After having the coming weekend off, both teams will be back in action Oct. 26 at the Big East Championship in New York, N.Y.

“We’re going to continue to just keep working hard, and good things will happen,” Bonsey said.