BY MELISSA CRUZ

In print | November 15, 2007

This past Saturday, Nov. 10, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in their last race of the season. Both the women’s 6k and the men’s 8k races took place at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. The women’s team finished in 6th place out of 37 teams, tying with Grove City, and the men’s team finished in 8th place out of 41 competing teams.

The Swat ladies were lead by Nyika Corbett ‘10, who fled through the course in 22 minutes and 58 seconds, making her average mile time 6:10. Corbett finished in 32nd place out of 267 total female finishers. Only five seconds behind Corbett and a consistent leader of the Swat women this season came Emma Stanley ’09 with a time of 23:03, landing her a 40th place finish overall. Close behind was Ashley Davies ’10, who crossed the finish line only a stride’s length behind Stanley, at 23:07, grabbing the 42nd spot. More top finishers in Saturday’s race were Caitlin Russel ’11 (23:09), Kathy Feeney ’09 (23:37), Bess Ritter ’09 (23:53) and Lauren DeLuca ’10 (24:17).

Erik Saka ’09 was the first finisher for the Swat men in this final race of the season. Finishing the 8K course in 26:08, he landed a 30th place finish out of 282 total male finishers. His average mile time throughout the race was a remarkable 5 minutes and 16 seconds. Close behind Saka, and each completing the race in under 27 minutes, were Ross Weller ’08 (26:21), Jon Shoop ’08 (26:49) and first-year Patrick Hartnett (26:53). More top-scoring Swat men were Dan Hodson ’09 (27:02), Mickey Katz ’08 (27:04) and Alex Frye ’11 (27:35).

Frye ’11 commented on the race day attitude of the teams. “With near perfect conditions [39 degrees Fahrenheit, slight breeze, hard ground, nearly flat course], we all took it to the wall,” a phrase which Frye described as a team-adopted mantra, meaning, “giving your hardest effort without fail.”

A few more team members commented on the final race, and on the season as a whole. “Everyone’s finishes were faster than those the last time we raced on the course,” Caitlin Russell ’11 said, “some by over a minute. Even though a lot of us unfortunately had to deal with injuries, we left the course with nothing to regret. We did the best in everything that was in our control.” Russell plans to resume training for the upcoming indoor track season after taking a few weeks to recuperate from the strenuous cross country season.

"Our team really came together for regionals. This whole year we have done well at working as a pack, and with all of the injuries that people have been struggling with, the closeness of the team let us push each other through our workouts and races, " Corbett said.

In the end, it really all comes down to one final word: “swert.”

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