The Hopkins men’s cross country team made history at McDaniel this past Saturday, winning its first Centennial Conference title in school history. The Jays, who won the meet with a total of 34 points, had five runners place in the top 10.
Senior Max Robinson led the Jays, finishing third with a time of 26:01; sophomore Schaffer Ochstein finished fifth with a time of 26:03; junior Austin Stecklair finished seventh with a time of 26:16; and senior Julian Saliani finished ninth with a time of 26:19. Additionally, freshman Stefan Arnold finished tenth with a time of 26:23, which earned him the Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year honor.
Dickinson finished in second place with 39 points, while Haverford finished a distant third with 61 points.
Although Robinson was pleased with his performance, he was much happier about the team victory.
“I definitely thought my race could've gone a little better, but after seeing that we had won it really didn't matter to me. We showed up to win as a team and that's what we did,” Robinson said. “It was definitely one of the proudest moments of my life to go up with my teammates and receive that conference trophy for the first time in program history. I'm glad I got to see that happen before I graduated.”
The women’s team had an equally impressive weekend, winning its sixth straight Centennial Conference title with 17 points.
Senior Holly Clarke won her first individual conference title with a time of 22:22, while junior Francis Loeb took second with a time of 22:29, and sophomore Hannah Oneda took third with a time of 22:30.
Clarke was ecstatic at finally capturing the title after taking second and third the last two years.
“It felt unexpected but really satisfying winning the individual conference title,” Clarke said. “My goal was to stick with our best runner, Hannah Oneda, and see what would happen from there. After finishing third in 2011 and second last year, I was hoping for another top three finish, but I never expected to win. As the race went on all I could think of was that this was my last chance to capture the title since it's my senior year."
Clarke also talked about the determination necessary to finish out the race. "I was dreading that final hill before the finish throughout the entire course of the race, but once I hit it, I felt stronger and better than I have ever felt at the end of a race,” she said. “I crossed the finish line feeling strong and knowing that my teammates would be right behind me, bringing it in for our sixth team championship.”
The ladies won the team race in a blowout, as second place Haverford finished with 55 points and third place Dickinson finished with 68. While Clarke recognized that she does have personal goals for the rest of the season, she stressed the importance of cross country as a team sport.
“My goals for the rest of the season are pretty simple: to capture the Regional and National Championship title as a team. Cross Country is the most team-oriented sport that exists (yes, I am quite biased), but it's true! Having an awesome team pushes me to run faster and pushes Hannah, Annie, Frances and all the other girls to individually run faster. At Regionals in two weeks, I'm hoping to run a sub 21 minute 6k, which would be a pretty big personal record for me."
Both the men’s and women’s teams will look to continue their success at NCAA Regionals in Allentown, Pa. on Nov. 16.
Clarke reflected on how the team has a great chance of performing well at the NCAAs.
"I think this year’s team has the ability to set a record-winning score at Regionals and Nationals,” Clarke said. “This means that we should score the lowest amount of points based on our places. Every girl on our varsity team has the ability to be in the top 20 at regionals, and I think we could get five girls to be All Americans this year. I was pretty disappointed with my race at Nationals last year so my goal is for some serious redemption — perhaps a top 10 finish individually! As long as we stay healthy and continue the momentum that we have, we should definitely be bringing home the National Championship for a second year in a row.”
