by Larry Eder
Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected])
This Day in X-Country/Track & Field–November 18
1957—Crawford “Forddy” Kennedy was a winner at the IC4A X-Country Championships at Van Cortlandt Park over Villanova’s Ron Delany, the 1956 Olympic Champion at 1500-Meters, to lead Michigan State to the team title. Finishing 8th for the Spartans was Kennedy’s older brother Henry, the 2-time defending champion!
NY Times(for subscribers):
Results: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/19/84784553.html?pageNumber=43
1978–The AIAW X-Country Championships, held in Denver, Colorado, featured the present and soon-to-be royalty of American female distance running. Future Hall-of-Famers, World and American Record holders, and Olympic, World, and U.S. Champions were all over the place in this precursor to the NCAA Championships, which began in 1981 for women.
20-year old Mary Decker, who had already established herself as a world class performer, was near the end of a short collegiate career at the University of Colorado and was one of the favorites, along with defending champion Kathy Mills of Penn State, who had set a World Record for 5000-meters at the AIAW T&F Championships in May. Much of Decker’s time in Boulder was spent recovering from what would be one of many injuries she would incur over the years, but she was back in top form at the time of this race.
Mills was leading North Carolina State’s Julie Shea late in the race, with Decker a close 3rd, when she veered slightly off course. She recovered quickly, but had to settle for a 3rd-place finish behind winner Decker (16:59.4) and runnerup Shea (17:01.7), who would go on to win this race in 1979 and 1980. A race with just those three would be memorable on its own merits, but how about these “also-rans”?:
4.Margaret Groos (Virginia) 17:15.1 1988 U.S. Olympian–Marathon
5.Brenda Webb (Tennessee) 17:20.4 2-time U.S. Indoor Champion–2-miles
6.Joan Benoit (North Carolina State) 17:24.0 1984 Olympic Marathon gold medalist (Benoit
transferred to NC St. from Bowdoin, then returned to the Maine school after spending 3 semesters in Raleigh)
7.Debbie Vetter (Iowa State) 17:30.2 10-time All-American–led the Cyclones to their 4th straight team title in this
race
8.Martha White (Virginia) 17:34.0 member of the Virginia team that would win the 1982 NCAA XC titles.
9.Lynn Jennings (Princeton) 17:37.2 3-time World X-Country Champion (among her many other accomplishments)
20.Judi St.Hilaire (Vermont) 1992 Olympic finalist-10,000 Meters(8th)
Also in the race was Cal.State-Northridge’s Julie Brown, who had been declared ineligible before the race by the AIAW, which ruled that she was in her 5th year of competition. Brown won an injunction that allowed her to run, but the AIAW still refused to include her in the official results. Brown, the 1975 World X-Country Champion (one of many titles she had already won), set a fast early pace before fading, but went on to win the U.S. National title the following week.
From the Sports Illustrated Vault:
“Kathy Mills of Penn State, the defending champion and also the American record holder at 5,000 meters, had a foot injury. Moreover, Mills did not arrive in Denver until 3 a.m. Saturday, only seven hours before the race. Penn State’s late arrival was an attempt to avoid the lag that shocks runners’ systems when they encounter oxygen-rare air. The Nittany Lion coach, Chris Brooks, believes in the microscope as well as the stopwatch. She trained her squad in a university altitude chamber, simulating the atmosphere in Denver, running the team on a treadmill as they watched slide projections of the racecourse terrain.”
Related Links: Kathy Mills Julie Shea St.Hilaire Margaret Groos Julie Brown
Hall-of-Fame Bios: Decker-Slaney Benoit
(Thanks to Jack Pfeifer and the late Louise Tricard)
2000—Calvin (Men) and Middlebury (Women) won their first team titles at the NCAA Division III Championships in Spokane, Washington. Individual winners were North Central senior Tim McCoskey and Luther junior Johanna Olson.
Olson’s victory, which capped an undefeated season, was all the more sweeter, since she had undergone surgery three years earlier to remove a brain tumor. She continued running once her college career ended, and ran the marathon at the 2004 (44th) and 2008 (46th) U.S. Olympic Trials. Sadly, the cancer returned and she finally lost her inspirational battle to the deadly disease on January 3, 2013.
Olson: Making Every Second Count
2000—At the NCAA Div.II Championships in Chino, California, Western State won the women’s team title, ending Adams State’s 8-year reign. The Mountaineers also won the men’s team title, its 3rd straight, and the individual winners were Abilene Christian’s Alfred Rugema and Kennesaw State’s Marjo Venalainen, who won for the 2nd year in a row.
Results
Men: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/fall_champs_records/2000/d2_m_cross_country.pdf
Women: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/fall_champs_records/2000/d2_w_cross_country.pdf
2006-Widener’s Macharia Yuot, one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan”. won the NCAA Div.III individual title on a muddy course in West Chester,OH. 7th in the race was Pomona College’s Will Leer, who would become one of the best milers in the U.S. Calvin won the team title.
In one of the closest battles in collegiate history, Middlebury (144) edged Amherst (145) and Calvin (149) to win the women’s team title. Willamette’s Sarah Zerzan was the individual winner.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=santoliquito/060420
2006–Nicodemus Naimadu’s 3rd individual win led Abilene Christian, long a power on the track, to its first Div.II X-Country team title in Pensacola, Florida. Naimadu won a total of 11 Div.II National titles (including a 4th XC win in 2007) during his career at Abilene.
Adams State edged in-state (Colorado) rival Western State (94-101) to win its 4th straight women’s team title. Western’s Esther Komen was the individual winner.
Naimadu:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYWeYv-NWk4
2022—Team winners at the NAIA X-Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida, were Dordt (M) and Taylor (W).
Dordt (97) and Milligan (115) were tied at 59 points through 4 finishers, but The Commanders had the better 5th man (38-56) as they won their 1st NAIA XC title.
Oklahoma City got a 1-2 finish from Abraham Chelangam and Shimales Abebe.
Taylor dominated the Women’s race, beating runnerup Milligan by 127 points (50-177), the 2nd-largest margin of victory in NAIA history. William Carey’s Lina May (16:50.9) won the individual title over Huntington frosh Addy Wiley (16:58.9).
Results: https://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/21233 Taylor
2023—NCAA Div.I Championships—Panorama Farms-Earlysville,VA; 50s, sunny, W-6k, M-10k
After a shaky start, Florida’s Parker Valby took control of the Women’s race, building a lead of more than 20 seconds before coasting to the win (15:44.7) over Alabama’s Doris Lemngole (16:02.8) and Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich (16:03.8).
The highly-anticipated duel between Valby and defending champion Katleyn Tuohy never materialized, since it was later revealed that Tuohy had been ill in the days leading up to the meet.
Tuohy still managed to finish 5th and helped North Carolina State win its 3rd straight team title, edging Northern Arizona by a mere 1 point (123-124), matching the closest women’s team finish ever! It was an unexpected win for the Wolfpack, which most people thought couldn’t possibly defend their titles when coach Laurie Henes announced that Kelsy Chmiel, the team’s #2 runner, would not be running due to a lower leg injury.
NC State started out conservatively, sitting in 4th place at the 2k split, but moved into the lead by 3k. Northern Arizona, hoping to win its first NCAA Women’s team title, stayed in 2nd place throughout the early going.
Things got interesting in the final rush to the finish. Tuohy valiantly did her part with her 5th place finish, but freshmen Leah Stephens and Grace Hartman, while performing admirably overall, were being passed by runners from other teams. However, veteran Sam Bush, a member of the last 2 Championship teams, saved the day for NC State by doing some passing of her own, moving up 14 places in the final 1k to secure the team title!
Said NC State coach Laurie Henes of Tuohy, “I can’t imagine a braver race for her to run. She’s extremely team-oriented and knew this probably wasn’t going to be her day individually – but she put herself in there and did everything she could for the team.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL8NyJDTfJg
Tuohy had an emotional moment with Henes when she found out NC State had won.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuvhs7p4s0k
It was a battle of titans in the Men’s race. Northern Arizona was looking for its 7th win in the last 8 years, while Oklahoma State was trying to erase the memory of last year’s meet, when they lost to the Lumberjacks on the tie-breaking rule on their home course.
Northern Arizona was in the lead at the 2k and 3k splits, but Oklahoma State moved into a tie at 4k (86 points for each). The Cowboys established a lead by 5k that they would never lose, going on to win their 5th Div.I title (their first since 2012).
Their winning total of 49 points is the least since Wisconsin won with 37 points in 2005. Northern Arizona didn’t relinquish their crown without a valiant fight, their 71 points being the least for a runnerup team since Arkansas scored 56 points to Wisconsin’s winning total of 53 points in 1997. Also making the podium were BYU (196) and Arkansas (211).
Another indication of the strength of the 1-2 teams is that all 5 of their respective scorers finished ahead of BYU’s first finisher!
The 5 scorers for Dave Smith’s team (with their overall placing) were freshmen Denis Kipngetich (4th) and Brian Musau (8th), sophomore Fouad Messaoudi (10th), junior Victor Shitsama (12th), and senior Alex Maier (15th).
And for Mike Smith’s Lumberjacks, senior Drew Bosley (5th), junior Nico Young (6th), senior Aaron Las Heras (18th), junior Santiago Prosser (21st), and senior Brodey Hasty (25th).
In the individual race, Harvard junior Graham Blanks and New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, a freshman from Eritrea with a 10k best of 27:20.8, pulled ahead of Stanford’s Ky Robinson, the winner of the 5-10 double at the Outdoor Championships in June, and OSU’s Kipngetich with less than a mile to go in the race.
Blanks, 6th a year ago, made a decisive move to pull away from Samuel on a downhill portion of the course, and then powered his way uphill in the final 400-meters, glancing over his shoulder at Samuel and waving to the crowd as he became the first man from an Ivy League school to win the NCAA Div.I title!
“Habtom did a fantastic job of keeping the gap between him and myself small,” said Blanks. “If I hadn’t run with such fear of being caught, and became complacent with my small lead, I’m sure Habtom would’ve been able to close that small gap.”
NC State Oklahoma State Northern Arizona
Results: https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=5806
Recaps: CitiusMag LetsRun https://trackandfieldnews.com
Mike Smith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNRX4qnWD9Y
Blanks: CitiusMag Podcast Apple Spotify
2023—NCAA Div.II Championships—Joplin,MO, mid-50s, sunny
Led by the 3rd-place finish of senior Natalie Graber, Grand Valley State won its 7th Div.II Women’s title, beating 3-time defending champion Adams State (2019,2022,2022) by 27 points (59-86).
Winona State Junior Lindsay Cunningham, 2nd a year ago, took the lead from the gun and went on to win by more than 15 seconds. She won 3 Div.II titles on the track this year—5000 Indoors and 5000 and 10,000 Outdoors.
West Texas A&M’s William Amponsah, a Junior from Ghana, ran away with the individual title in the Men’s race, but the fight for the team championship was tight, with Wingate edging the Colorado School of Mines by just 9 points (70-79. CSM, the defending champions, actually had a 3-point lead through 4 scorers, but Wingate won the 5th-man battle to capture their 1st NCAA title. CSM was without the services of Dillon Powell, who won the individual title in 2022 as a sophomore.
Recap: https://www.ustfccca.org/2023/11/featured/meet-recap-2023-ncaa-dii-cross-country-championships
Results: Women Men Full Replays: Men Women
2023—NCAA Div.III Championships—Newville,PA, 50s, sunny, hilly
Claimants to the Men’s and Women’s team titles weren’t decided until the final stages of each race.
As the field went through the 6k point of the Men’s 8k course, Wisconsin-LaCrosse (101) seemed to be in control with a commanding lead over North Central (159) and Pomona-Pitzer (160).
LaCrosse’s Ethan Gregg maintained his big lead to capture the individual title, but two of his teammates lost more than 80 places before they crossed the finish line, bringing the team’s score up to 159 points. They were still sitting in 1st place after North Central finished with 169 points, but where was Pomona-Pitzer’s 5th man? The Sagehens, who were only ranked #8 coming into the meet, had an impressive total of 65 points through their first 4 scorers, but it wasn’t until Jack Stein finished far back in 119th place (93rd in team scoring) that they had their winning score of 158!
Teams and fans (and streaming announcers Noah Droddy and Stu Newstat) had to wait for what seemed like an eternity before officials carefully confirmed the official results!
Haverford, the 2010 Champion, finished 27th in its 30th-consecutive appearance at the Nationals. It marked the end of the legendary coaching career of the retiring Tom Donnelly, who spent the last 49 years as the team’s coach. Donnelly, a key member of 3 NCAA Div.I XC titles while at Villanova, is a member of the USTFCCCA Coaches Hall of Fame.
There was no less drama in the Women’s Race, as only 7 points separated the 4 podium teams!
Once again, the 5th scorer was key for the winning team as Junior Sophie McManus passed 26 runners in the last 1k to give Carleton (151) the title over NYU (154), the University of Chicago (156) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (158). It was the first NCAA team title for Carleton.
St.Benedict Junior Fiona Smith, 2nd a year ago, won the individual title by more than a minute. She won the 3000 and 5000 at the 2023 Div.III Indoor Championships.
Results: https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=5904
D3 Glory Days Recap: https://www.d3glorydays.com/read/2023-d3-cross-country-nationals-recap
What’s a Sagehen? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_sage-grouse
Historical Links
Div.I Women Men T&F News Archives USTFCCA
Div.II https://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/meet-history?series=3370
Div.III Kirk Reynolds Archives
Also
2017—8 months after his untimely passing, Norb Sander, the man primarily responsible for the revival of NY’s Armory, was honored by having a stretch of 168th Street (at the corner of Fort Washington Avenue, which is just steps away from the entrance to the iconic track & field venue, co-named in his honor—Dr.Norbert Sander Way.
http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2017/nov/23/city-council-honors-legendary-runner-dr-norbert-sa/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/sports/norbert-sander-dead-nyc-marathon-winner.html
