On the cold and windy Saturday morning of Nov. 19 — while most of us Blue Jays were catching up on sleep for the first time since September — both the men’s and women’s cross country teams toed the line of the NCAA Championship course in Louisville, Ky. next to the 32 best teams from across the country.
With a Conference and Regional championship already secured, the Hopkins women arrived with fierce energy and high expectations. Last season, the Jays were ranked at number one for the entire season, but ended in a disappointing fourth place finish at NCAAs. This year would be different.
In August, the USTFCCCA preseason coaches’ poll put the Jays at number three nationally, behind Williams College and SUNY Geneseo. By the end of October, the Blue Jays reclaimed their number one ranking for the 29th time in Hopkins history.
To nobody’s surprise, while other teams still held faith in the earlier preseason rankings, the Blue Jays dominated the rest of the competition.
One after the other, they flocked through the finish and captured their fourth NCAA title in five years by their biggest margin of victory yet. From the gun, Hopkins led the race, finishing with 128 total points, a full 74 points ahead of the second place Washington University Bears (Mo.)
The Jays were led by senior Tess Meehan, who earned her third All-American honors with a 25th place finish. Meehan is the University’s first three-time All-American runner, finishing the 6k course in a personal best time of 21:10. The veteran was a huge help to the young group of Blue Jays competing at the NCAAs.
“It really helped to have Tess there,” sophomore runner Ellie Clawson said. “It boosted my confidence to have her and Caroline [Smith], who both have experience racing at nationals.”
Meehan was accompanied by two other Blue Jays earning All-Americans honors; sophomores Felicia Koerner and Natalia LaSpada finished second and third, respectively for the Jays with times of 21:14 and 21:15. Rounding out the top five scoring runners was junior Smith and sophomore Clawson.
The Blue Jays maintained an impressively tight pack through the entire race, despite the harsh running conditions and the dense competition. The top five Jays crossed the line separated by only 32 seconds.
“Our team has an extraordinary ability to push each other and work off one another’s energy,” Clawson said. “Also, the fans were crazy! There was a ridiculous number of spectators, which made the race more exciting.”
While a National Championship is nothing short of extraordinary, what may be equally as remarkable as the women’s victory is the men’s eighth place finish. While eighth is a long way from a championship title, this was the men’s best performance at a NCAA championship in program history. The only other time the Jays were able to crack a top-20 finish was in 2013 when they finished 11th with 355 points.
The men did exactly what they set out to do: improve. With 316 points, the men took home an eighth place finish after unexpectedly winning at Regionals and making it to NCAAs in the first place.
The Jays were led by senior Schaffer Ochstein, who was the first Blue Jay to go sub-25 in an NCAA Championship. The senior finished the 8k course in 24:59, followed by teammates Tom Pavarini and Scott Pourshalchi, who both ran personal best times.
Not to mention, after an unbelievable 2016 campaign that saw the Jays soar to new heights, Head Coach Bobby Van Allen was named the USTFCCCA Coach of the Year, earning the honor for the fourth time of his career.
Coming off of what was undoubtedly one of the most successful weekends in program history, the Jays will quickly turn around to begin preparing for the indoor track season, starting this Saturday, Dec. 3 at the F&M College Diplomat Open in Lancaster, Pa.
