by Jack Pfeifer
NYU opened defense of its NCAA championship in men’s cross country over the weekend, winning its own invitational Saturday morning at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
Coach Nick McDonough’s Violets, surprise winners of the Div. III nationals a year ago, rested two of last year’s top returnees, Jesse Schneider (Delhi NY) and Calvin Lee (Old Tappan NJ), and relied on newcomers. “We’ll be looking to reload after our last few highly successful seasons,” McDonough said. “We have a lot of young guys, including some freshmen, that will help fill the void.”
A little later the Iona Gaels, under new Coach Ric Santos, began pursuit of the Div. I men’s championship that narrowly eluded them a year ago, when they finished 2nd to the Oregon Ducks.
They finished 3rd on Saturday in their own Meet of Champions, also known as the Brother Paddy Doyle meet, at VCP, using just one of last year’s stars, Mohamed Khadraoui, and resting others in this early-season affair. Khadraoui finished 2nd to an obscure young runner from Southern Utah University, in Cedar City, Utah. The winner, Cameron Levins, is a sophomore from British Columbia, Canada. He ran 24:24.1 on an 8k course to win by 4 seconds.
The University of Michigan, preseason ranked #4 nationally, won the scoring handily with 39 points and featured the return to NYC of Craig Forys, a star runner for Colts Neck NJ 2 seasons ago. Forys finished 4th, behind teammate Ciran O’Lionaird.
Also in the top 10 were two other familiar faces, Girma Segni (9th), the former PSAL champ and East African refugee who runs for Marist College now, and Andrew Hanko (10th), the tall, lanky NJ private-school champ now running for the Naval Academy.
The women’s title was won by Penn State, with 40 points, defeating Cornell (76), Boston College (117) and 18 other teams. The Nittany Lions didn’t use their star, Bridget Franek, but had the top finisher anyway in Leah Rosenfeld, who ran 21:54.7 for 6k. “I was definitely surprised,” said Rosenfeld, a sophomore from Ridgefield, Conn. “I was hoping we’d win as a team, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel going into my first race because I’ve been a little up and down lately.”
Among the top 20 finishers were Hayley Green (3rd) of Stony Brook, Belgian newcomer Annelore Desaedeleer (8th) of Iona, and New Yorkers Jessica Ortman (15th) for Kentucky and Caitlin Lane (17th) for Penn State.
There was plenty of news upstate as well. At the Oneonta State Airfield Invitational in Oneonta, the top-ranked Div. III Cortland men battled to a 45-point tie with nearby Plattsburgh, while Oneonta (88), Hamilton (97), Mansfield (103) and SUNY-Delhi (125), the nation’s leading Div. III JC, all had respectable showings. Hamilton’s Peter Kosgei, last year’s Div. III runnerup, won the 6k race at Fortin Park in 18:26, 17 seconds up on Mike Heymann of Plattsburgh.
Hamilton (56) won the women’s race over Plattsburgh (63),Mansfield (68) and Cortland (80). Jenny Schaffhouser of Plattsburgh won the 4.5k race in 16:52, 13 seconds ahead of Brittany Brunetto of Cortland.
In Buffalo, the Binghamton men (38) won the Buffalo Stampede over Bucknell (42) and the host school (73). Akron (38) won the women’s meet over Bucknell (43) and Buffalo (73). In New Jersey, Quinnipac won both divisions of the Holmdel Invitational.
In the Dickinson Long/Short event in Carlisle, Pa., freshman Neely Spence of Shippensburg ran away with the women’s 4k race in 13:34, winning by nearly a minute. Spence, who was home-schooled for high school, is the daughter of the 1992 Olympic marathoner Steve Spence.
Around the country, the biggest news came out of Seattle, where the University of Washington unveiled a budding new star, Kendra Schaaf, an 18-year-old Canadian making her debut for the 3rd-ranked Div. I Huskies. Schaaf won the Sundodger Invitational, running 6k in19:58, the first woman to break 20 minutes on the Lincoln Park course.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster,” said Schaaf, who is from Lumsden, Saskatchewan. “It’s good to come in and have a good race and get the year off on the right foot.” Schaaf has track PRs of 4:20 for 1,500 and 16:05 for 5k, and she represented Canada in the world Junior cross country last spring in Edinburgh.
Washington doesn’t even have top billing in its own part of the country – the Oregon Ducks are the nation’s No. 1-ranked team – but Schaaf joins an impressive squad that includes veterans Marie Lawrence and Anita Campbell as well as another incoming freshman, California prep mile sensation Christine Babcock.
UW coach Greg Metcalf was impressed with Schaaf. “She looked great,” Metcalf said, “she wasn’t breathing hard. It wasn’t a perfect day out, she wasn’t wearing spikes, but she was in control the whole time.”
Washington won the women’s race with 24 points. The Huskies’ Lawrence was 2nd in an excellent 20:23, just ahead of Jessica Pixler, the Div. II 1,500 national champion, who runs for Seattle Pacific.
In the men’s race, surprising Paul Limpf of Eastern Washington set a course record, while Washington won the team scoring, led by Cal transfer Jake Schmitt.
The Alabama men, 5th-ranked nationally, showed off its newest Kenyan arrival, Tyson David, in sweeping the first 5 places of its own Crimson Classic. David, who was at Central Arizona last year, led fellow Kenyans Augustus Maiyo, Emmanuel Bor, Abraham Kutingala and Andrew Kirwa. The Alabama women, led by freshman Sara Vaughn, defeated Georgia State, 38-44.
Kenyan runners are appearing in increasingly large numbers, especially in junior colleges and at Div. II and NAIA colleges.
At the NYU Invitational, the first two finishers were Kenyan freshmen running for Coach Valmore Holt’s New York Tech, Nicholas Koiyet (Eldoret) and Amos Kipkosgei (Kapsabet).
After them came the first three NYU finishers, Zach Maher (Carmel NY), Mark Hess (Morristown NJ) and Jack Fitzhenry (St. Joseph NJ).
The Tennessee, Florida State and Virginia Tech women’s teams all ran well.
At the Lambert Acres Golf Course in Maryville, Tenn., the Tennessee women won their own invitational, as senior Sarah Bowman cruised to victory, running a PR 17:21 for 5k. Some of her teammates included Phoebe Wright (3rd), New Yorkers Rolanda Bell (5th) and Brittany Sheffey (6th), and newcomer Chanelle Price (7th).
“It was a good start for Sarah,” said Tennessee Coach J.J. Clark. “She looked really good, and I was happy to see her start with such a nice rhythm and such a confident run.”
Florida State, #2 nationally in the preseason rankings, had a good battle with Virginia Tech on the VT home course in Blacksburg. The Seminoles prevailed 33-37, as VaTech sisters Tasmin and Jessica Fanning ran 1-4. FSU features a strong foursome of Susan Kuijken, Lesley Van Miert, Pilar McShine and Lydia Willemse but will have to do without the services of Hannah England, the NCAA Div. I 1,500 champion, who has returned home for the school year.
The Blacksburg men’s meet was also won by the ‘Noles. Their Luke Gunn won the 7.6k race in 24:06.6.
The Texas Tech women, running without their ace, Sally Kipyego, the reigning NCAA cross country champion, won their own Red Raider Invitational in Lubbock. Lillian Badaru, a Ugandan who ran for South Plains JC last year, made her Tech debut, running the 5k course in 17:40. Teammate Gladys Kipsang was 3rd.
South Plains actually won the men’s race, defeating both Texas Tech and the reigning Div. II national champions, Abilene Christian. The first seven finishers in the race – two unattached competitors, two from South Plains, two from ACU and one from Tech – were all Kenyan. In the women’s race, 7 of the first 10 finishers were Kenyan.
At the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson, the Arizona State women (ranked #5 nationally) opened their season with a 27-32 victory over Arizona. They were led by Ali Kielty, who ran 4k in 13:39. The first finisher in the men’s race was Brandon Bethke, running unattached but destined for the Sun Devils squad. Bethke, who starred at Wisconsin last year, ran 6k in 18:29; ASU defeated the Arizona men, 27-39.
Bethke transferred after the departure of his college coach, Jerry Schumacher, for Portland, Ore., where he will work with open athletes. Another Badger, Evan Jager, also left the program and has moved to Portland and turned professional.