The men's cross country team traveled to Terre Haute, Ind., Saturday to compete in the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet hosted by Indiana State University. The Bears scored 609 points, placing 22nd out of 36 teams in their heat. The University of Colorado won the meet with 75 points.
Ozzie Meyers '08 finished first for the Bears and 89th overall with a time of 24:48 for the eight-kilometer course. Finishing close behind were captain Chris Burke '07 and Nick Neely '07 in 118th and 125th place, respectively. Rounding out the top five for the Bears were Ari Zamir '08 and Christian Escareno '10, placing 127th and 150th overall.
The Bears wanted to start off the race conservatively, which proved difficult with such a high level of competition.
"The team went out too fast," said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Craig Lake. "We need to learn to be more patient. It was a good wake up call to show what makes us successful."
Meyers ran a personal best for eight kilometers, breaking 25:00 for the first time in his career.
"I went out too quickly through the first mile, but was relatively happy with my (five-kilometer) time," Meyers said. "Between five and six-and-a-half kilometers I let up and got too complacent. It was the hardest part of the race, which was a product of going out a little too fast. I closed fine in the last mile though."
With high expectations going into the meet, the Bears' finish was far from what they had anticipated. Strategically, Brown did not run according to the race plan, which hurt the team's results.
One encouraging fact for Brown is that most of the men were training through the meet, running at least 80 miles during the week before the competition so as not to peak at Pre-Nationals. During the next two weeks before the Oct. 27 Heptagonal Championships, the team will rest its legs to prepare for that more important meet.
"The next two weeks, we will have no more long runs and do more tune-up, shorter, faster workouts," Meyers said. "This meet was telling us where we need to be in the next two weeks. We need to sharpen up and feel fresh."
Despite the poor execution over the weekend, Lake is confident the team will be ready for Heps.
"Our goal is to perform to our capability," Lake said. "We didn't sacrifice anything for the (Pre-Nationals) meet so we should be well-rested for Heps. Chris Burke is looking better and better. He is having a similar season as last spring (when he placed second in the 10-kilometer event at the outdoor track and field Heptagonals). Chris is a big-time performer. It's nice to go in as an underdog, but we should be at least third (at Heps)."
The Bears will face stiff competition for the Heps cross country title from Dartmouth and Princeton, which both competed at Pre-Nationals as well. Both the Big Green and the Tigers had impressive showings in Indiana this weekend.
