GU Exceeds Expectations, Finishes Ninth in Nation

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The night before the last race of her collegiate career, graduate student Liz Maloy got a text message from an old teammate wishing her luck and reminiscing about the memory-filled career she’d had to this point. Having arrived at Georgetown as a freshman more than five years ago, Maloy felt a wave of emotions, remembering that this year’s NCAA Nationals would be her last. Yet the bittersweet ending was even more than she could have hoped for, as Maloy led the 17th-ranked Hoyas to a ninth-place finish that shocked the elite field at Terre Haute.

Overshadowed for most of the season by top-ranked teams West Virginia and Princeton, the women’s cross country team came into Nationals as an afterthought in most people’s minds. While the Hoyas were confident, having raced against some of the best for two weeks in a row, they even surprised themselves a little.

“I was just thinking that we probably ran well as a team, but I didn’t know we did that good, so it was really exciting,” freshman Emily Infeld said.

Maloy paced the Blue and Gray, putting herself in decent position after the first 1,000 meters and capped her career with a 33rd place, all-American finish in 20:36.8. Sitting in around 50th place throughout most of the early going, she started feeling good at around 3K, and started picking off people from there. Closing hard the last straightaway, Maloy capped her career with the impressive finish.

“Liz has been through so much,” Head Coach Chris Miltenberg said. “To me she’s an example of what I want Georgetown and our team to stand for. Today she came out and just ran gutsy as hell, she just ran really, really tough. Liz is going to be very, very hard to ever replace. ... You couldn’t ask for one thing more from her.”

Following Maloy was Infeld, who turned in the third-best freshman performance, finishing 60th overall in 20:54.8. Infeld, as she has done all season, moved her way up in the field using senior teammate Natasha LaBeaud, who was slightly ahead of her throughout most of the race, as a guide. LaBeaud herself was consistent throughout the race, putting herself in position early and hanging tough to finish 79th in 21:01.8.

“From the 5K on I was just pushing as hard as I could and just doing what I could to get to the finish line,” LaBeaud said.

Freshman Katie McCafferty was next, going out conservatively but closing hard over the last 2K to finish 89th. Georgetown’s depth played a large role in finding a strong fifth runner, as two of the three candidates, junior Lauren Gregory and senior Lise Ogrodnick, had disappointing races. Junior Renee Tomlin came up big, running a gutsy race and doing just enough to hang on for critical points.

For the Hoyas, finishing in the top 10 meant a lot after being overlooked throughout most of the season.

“It feels great. ... We’ve been racing [West Virginia, Princeton and Villanova] all year so we didn’t win anything, and all people see is that ‘oh, you didn’t win so you must not be that great.’ ... But this is awesome to be able to come in ninth and get people to see that the Mid-Atlantic [region] is ridiculous [and] the Big East is ridiculous,” Maloy said.

That top notch of competition, however, may have played to the Hoyas’ advantage as they came into the meet prepared to run against the nation’s best.

“We’ve had competition the whole season, so we just got used to it, every race was such high quality,” McCafferty said.

“We were in a great position as a team because we knew that we had run in some of the best teams in the country,” Miltenberg said. “If nothing else, we were very battle tested. ... We knew that we could go in there and stick it to a lot of people who didn’t see us coming, and that’s what we were most fired up to do.”

For Miltenberg, who is in only his second year as head coach, the performance is especially rewarding after last year’s disappointment at Nationals, where the Hoyas finished 28th.

“I could not be happier with what we did as a team ... today for me, I’m so proud of all of them. What I want our team to be about is fighting. We came in ranked 17th and we believed in ourselves; they believed in me, and we fought like hell and got what we knew we could do,” Miltenberg said.

Men Finish 10th

While the Hoyas had two all-Americans in redshirt juniors Andrew Bumbalough and Levi Miller, Georgetown could not escape a recent trend of disappointing team finishes at Nationals as they tied for 10th place with Alabama.

Bumbalough, who has led the Hoyas all season long, put himself right around 20th place early on and went with the top pack as they broke away from the field. Throughout the first half of the race he felt relaxed and composed, yet around the 7K mark he ran into breathing problems and began to hurt. Staying tough, Bumbalough was still in position to crack the top 10 at about 1,000 meters out, but had to remain content with just hanging on for 13th in 29:51.7.

“Today was just one of those days where I just didn’t feel that great and the last 3K was definitely a struggle. ... I guess I was proud of my performance because I was able to hold on even though I didn’t feel good,” Bumbalough said.

Head Coach Pat Henner sympathized with Bumbalough, pointing to the steps that he’s taken over the last year.

“I think it’s still a great finish to finish 13th, so I’m really happy with his race,” Henner said. “That’s ultimately what it boils down to — running tough even on an off day. He still finished better than last year so I think it speaks volumes of how much progress he’s made as a runner.”

Yet the most impressive performance of the day went to Miller, who had failed to finish the race in years past, but put that all behind him and went on to finish 35th in 30:09. Miller, who was content with staying back and conserving energy through the first 5K, moved up nearly 20 places in the last 3K.

“I was in control of my own race, and I was just happy it was going well, just forward momentum and just started picking people off one by one,” Miller said. “I thought the race went unbelievable. It’s a lot of weight off my shoulders. I’m a happy man, I’m really happy that I finally did it.”

Yet on a cold, overcast day, Miller and Bumbalough proved to be the only bright spots as the majority of the team underperformed. Senior Mike Banks, who had been running as the fifth-sixth man throughout most of the season, finished third for the men placing 106th, a little farther back than the team had hoped. Senior Mike Krisch, who had a frustrating season battling hamstring problems, fell out of position early on and wound up placing 117th. Rounding out the top five for the Hoyas was sophomore Ayalew Taye, who faltered over the second half of the race and finished 122nd. Senior Justin Scheid had an off day as well.

“Nats is a really easy place to be running with the wrong people, just because there’s so much traffic,” Krisch said. “By 5K, I was already back and from there it was just moving in the wrong direction.”

“Ayalew, Mike, Justin ... if you run through the 5K then you’re pretty much fine,” Henner said. “Those guys had already started giving back spots before the 5K, and if you do that then it just sets you up for continuing to do that the whole rest of the course.”

Despite the Hoyas’ disappointing finishes, the team had a chance to finish much higher with about 1,000 meters to go — even as high as sixth place. Northern Arizona finished in sixth with 281 points, only 38 points ahead of Georgetown.

“I felt like we should have been a lot higher if everyone would have run the way that they are capable of; in that sense it was a little frustrating, because ... if a couple guys here or there just run a little better than they did — and they are very capable of that — so not asking them to go above and beyond, all of a sudden we’re sixth,” Bumbalough said.

Despite the disappointing finish, the team made great strides this fall, winning the Big East title and finishing high at Nationals even on such an off day.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Henner said, “I’m disappointed. I know the guys are disappointed but it’s still something where our program as a whole, we’ve definitely moved way forward this fall. To have what I would say as a team a kind of off day and still be top 10 in the country is pretty good, but it’s still a missed opportunity.”