The men's cross country team ventured down to New York City for the Iona Meet of Champions on Saturday and returned to Providence as runner-up. Brown tallied 66 points, while host and fifth-ranked Iona College finished first with 26 points. The Bears bested 22 other teams at the crowded event, including Harvard.
Nick Neely '07 led the Bears, placing 12th overall with a time of 25:11, a personal best for the hilly, eight-kilometer course at Van Cortlandt Park. Ozzie Myers '08 finished second for the squad and 17th overall, setting a personal record by over 35 seconds. Myers was followed closely by Christian Escareno '10, who crossed the finish line in 18th place. Captain Chris Burke '07 and Ari Zamir '08 rounded out the top five scorers for the team, placing 24th and 28th, respectively.
"Nick has been getting consistently better," said Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Craig Lake. "It was not a surprise at all that he was the top guy. Ozzie has brought his running to a new level. His hard work and dedication are paying off. Christian, as a first-year, is a huge talent with lots of potential."
Despite some watered-down competition, the Bears wanted to use the meet as a chance to preview the Van Cortlandt course, where the Heptagonal Championships will take place at the end of October. The team's goal was to place second behind Iona, which is ranked No. 5 nationally. Instead of resting for Saturday's meet, the team had hard workouts on both Monday and Wednesday. Despite training through the meet, the Bears still managed to make huge improvements from last year.
The Bears' top pack went out in 4:58 for the first mile. It continued moving up through the back hills of the course and came through the 5k in 15:44. With three kilometers left, the runners gave whatever they had left, though after a week in which they ran 90 miles, no one had much of a kick at the end.
The meet was the first race of the season for Bruno's top runners, displaying the depth of the team, which will be a key to its success. The Bears saw the meet as a step in the right direction toward achieving its ultimate goal: winning the Heptagonal Championships.
"It was a great opener," Neely said. "We need to work on keeping the pack together for longer but we are on the right track. It shows we have a lot of potential and sets us up well for Indiana (Pre-Nationals on Oct. 14). Our training is geared toward Heps, but I am excited about Pre-Nationals. We just have to keep things day-to-day and take it one race at a time."
The meet saw many breakthroughs for the Bears. Neely, who peaked at this meet last year, ran a personal best despite training through the meet. Zamir also had an impressive race after coming back from an injury and missing some workouts prior to the meet.
"We have so many guys to fill spots if someone has an off-day," Myers said. "We are ridiculously deep this year. We should be tapered at Heps and Regionals and we should be able to mix things up with Dartmouth and Princeton."
A limited squad will travel to Franklin Park in Boston next weekend for the New England Championships. The top seven runners will sit out of the meet in order to prepare for Pre-Nationals on Oct. 14 in Terre Haute, Ind.
