The Dartmouth College XC Invitational: The Revenge of the Willies

In yet another fascinating and nail-biting episode of Dartmouth Cross Country, the men's team found itself in that familiar place: the starting line of the Dartmouth Invite and our first big matchup of the xc season.  Providing a great deal of competition to open the DXC calendar was a strong contingent of Syracuse Orangemen.

The race also featured Collegiate record holder and multiple time NCAA champion Sam Chelanga as the top individual and Benjamin True, Saucony pro runner and Dartmouth alumnus, as official starter.  After some embarrassing difficulty with the starting gun, the race was off.  Star "middle-distance" runner Dylan O. immediately took to the heals of Chelanga, resulting in a quick first 2 miles as the pack was dragged behind them.

Just after the start. (Photo credit: Mom)

After descending Freshman Hill, the real racing started through Pine Park as the pack separated with Will, John, Dylan, and Timmy battling the Syracuse pack and the rest of us chasing.  After running, walking, and crawling up Ski Jump, we had ~2.5km of flat fairways to the finish.

Cresting Ski Jump. (Photo credit: Mom).

Will had another stellar Dartmouth Invite, beating everyone but Chelanga.  John, Dylan, Tim, and Brian had good races to round out our top 5, but unfortunately Syracuse was too strong up front for us, as they won 24-34.  Still, it was a solid opening performance for us and a great chance for the freshman to open up their collegiate careers.  Notable performances were Tim Gorman '16 and Brian Masterson '16 in our top-5 for the first time, as well as Matt Herzig '17 as the top freshman.

The Stache. (Photo credit: Mom).

Since the Invite, we've been getting through the tough workouts that you either love or hate: Grasse Road,  a tempo, and Skinripper this week.  Whether you do 4 or 5 [or 6] Skinrippers, it is bound to result in tears.  Two weekends from now we have our first big race, the Paul Short Invite at Lehigh University.  This will be a great chance for us to take down some nationally ranked teams and earn a few at-large points.  

Until next time,

Matt and Steve