Unexpected success for the Bulldog harriers

After stomping the competition at the Fordham Invitational last week, the women's cross country team headed to Minnesota this past weekend with all its returning starters to compete in its biggest meet in recent years. They arrived with little fanfare, few expectations, and an occasional glance in their direction from puzzled teams wondering, "Yale has a cross country team?"

SARAH ENGLAND/YH

Even in light of the Bulldogs' success at the Fordham Invitational, competing against 29 teams (six nationally ranked) and over 250 runners in only the second competition of the year would have been challenging at the least. However, at a team dinner the night before, motivation reached a new high when Lindsay Mitchell, CC '03, proclaimed, "We are going to have to show these people that Yale does have a cross country team!"

When the dust settled and scores were tabulated, everyone knew that Yale could no longer be underestimated. The Bulldogs' finished second, catapulting them to a No. 10 national ranking, their first appearance in the polls since 1991.

With Head Coach Mark Young away in Sydney coaching the U.S. women's track and field team, Dan Ireland, the new head coach of the men's team, has temporarily stepped in as women's head coach.Young is expected to return from Sydney one day before the annual Yale-Harvard-Princeton meet on Fri., Oct. 6.

Despite his absence, Young has managed to remain involved with the team. He and Ireland are in constant communication with each other, relaying meet results and instructions for conducting practices. Both coaches help the women's team maintain a disciplined training routine, with each runner averaging approximately 60 miles of running a week, supplemented with early-morning pool workouts and weight training. During the summer, the team maintained its prowess with personalized training instruction from Young, culminating in a week-long workout in New Hampshire before school started. Both the on-and-off season training paid off at the Roy Grisle Invitational, as the women were not only facing steep competition, but also an extra kilometer—a new rule implemented by the NCAA this year.

Cross Country

Record: Ranked No. 10 in the nation Recent Results: Second place, Ray Grisle Invitational Coming Up: Fri., Oct. 6 vs. Harvard and Princeton

The team persisted through the six-kilometer race and posted solid results. "We made a game plan before the race, and the girls stuck exactly to what we had talked about," Ireland explained. "The key to winning this race was getting a good start," Kate O'Neill, TD '03, commented. "The trail became narrow shortly into the race, and with 250 girls running, it posed a problem." This game plan resulted in three Bulldog runners finishing in the top 20. O'Neill, who earned all-Ivy Honors her freshman year, placed 10th with a time of 22:30, and Mitchell and Laura O'Neill, TC '03, finished 14th and 15th, respectively, both with a time of 22:36. The week before, these sophomore sensations had placed first, second, and third in the Fordham Invitational.

While the varsity team tore apart the competition, the JV team traveled to Quinnipiac and placed first in that meet, with the top three places going to Yale freshmen runners. The women on the junior varsity squad may be ready to continue the Bulldog cross country dynasty.

Although the women have yet to reach their peak, Ireland comments that, "The top 10 teams in the country are very evenly matched and consistent, so shifting ranks between the teams is very seldom." The Bulldogs' main goals are to avenge their disappointing sixth place finish last year at the Heptagonal Championships and to earn their first bid to the NCAA championships since 1991. However, they first must defend last year's victory in the HYPs before looking any further. "With the confidence they gained from Minnesota, the girls are looking forward to competing against Harvard and Princeton," Ireland said. "I'm hoping that we can return to the glory days of the late '80s, when Yale was the best cross country team in the nation."

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