NEW YORK - Racing on what is widely regarded as one of the most challenging courses in the country - Van Cortlandt Park in New York City - the women's cross country team finished sixth out of 26 teams in the highly touted Iona Meet of Champions on Saturday morning. The Bears finished with 199 points, while Cornell won the meet with 67 points.
Other Ivy League schools competing in the meet included Dartmouth, which finished third, Princeton, which took fifth, and Harvard, which was one spot behind the Bears in seventh.
Coming into the race, the women had once again been instructed by Director of Cross Country Craig Lake to run the opening kilometer of the six-kilometer race at the back of the pack, before slowly moving past other runners as they tired, with the hope of running the second half of the race as fast, if not faster, than the first half.
"The pack stayed together through the 3k mark, but we should have increased the pace more than we did," said captain Anna Willard '06.
Unfortunately, the team stayed a little too comfortable through much of the race and finished with far too much gas left in the tank.
"This was a learning experience, as the race strategy is much harder to implement in a big race, but (the team) learned from it," Lake said.
Naja Ferjan '07 - running in her first ever 6k - led the team with a 21st-place finish in a time of 22:46.3, behind the race winner, Lindsey Scherf of Harvard in 21:19.3. It was an improvement for Ferjan over the team's previous race, in which she finished third for the Bears and tired considerably at the end.
"It felt good to pass people at the end of the race. I probably had a little too much left, though," Ferjan said.
Following her was the consistent Michol Monaghan '07, who has finished second for the Bears in both of the team's races this season. Crossing the line strongly in a time of 22:57.6, she finished in 30th place out of the field of 232 runners.
Willard was next to finish for the Bears, coming in 32nd place with a time of 23:00.3. Although she described her performance as "a disappointing race for me personally," Willard was optimistic about the team's progress thus far under the direction of its new coach, Lake.
"I am happy (with) where the team is right now," she said. "We are a little tired from the high mileage, but that is to be expected. We want to be ready in late October, not September."
Another positive sign for the women harriers was the impressive finish of Anya Davidson '06, who finished 58th in 23:27.9. It was her first cross country race of the season, after having limited training due to injury and illness.
"She is a little behind in mileage, but is off to a solid start already and should make leaps and bounds in her training," Lake said.
Rounding out the scoring for the Bears was Herald Assistant Sports Editor Jilane Rodgers '06. Alex Brown '08 and Lindsay Kahn '09 completed the top seven.
According to Willard, the women will now spend the next two weeks building confidence before heading to Franklin Park in Massachusetts - a familiar competition site for the Bears - for the New England Championships on Oct. 8.
