The men's cross country team headed south on Saturday to race in the highly competitive NCAA Regionals at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City. The Bears had a solid outing, finishing sixth out of 34 teams with 198 points. Iona University took the top spot with 59 points and Providence College followed close behind with 72. The top two schools qualified to run at the NCAA Nationals Meet Nov. 20 in Terre Haute, Ind.
Ari Zamir '08 finished first for the Bears, narrowly missing all-regional honors by two places. He finished 27th overall with a time of 32:40 for the 10-kilometer course. Nick Neely '07, Ozzie Myers '08 and Ryan Graddy '08 finished close together in 33rd, 36th and 39th overall, respectively. Senior captain Chris Burke '07 rounded out the five scoring positions by placing 63rd overall.
"Ari had a fantastic race," said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Craig Lake. "He is tough as nails. Ozzie had a solid day and bounced back from Heps. Neely ran a tough race. Grady ran the race of his life. The junior class is very strong."
Zamir led the Bears in the meet despite being injured for most of the first month of the year. He did pool workouts for the beginning part of the season and was not in top shape until recently.
"This was the hardest I had pushed in a race so far this year," Zamir said. "We came back strong and beat a lot of Ivy League rivals. ... We (the juniors) are starting to fill the upper-class mold of leading the workouts this year and we have high expectations for next year."
After placing seventh at the Heptagonal Championships two weeks ago, the Bears showed significant improvements this weekend. Brown beat Dartmouth, Yale and Cornell, all of which finished ahead of the Bears at Heps.
"We beat Dartmouth, Yale and Cornell," Lake said. "But they didn't run very well. This meet shows how close all the Ivy League teams are and how the results can be different on any given race. Harvard (fourth place at Regionals, eighth at Heps) had an all-star day. It shows how mental the sport really is."
All season the Bears struggled to get everyone to run their best on the same day.
"We never put it together all in one day," Lake said. "We had a different number one (runner for the team) every meet. The (first-year) class is very solid but it's sad for the seniors that they didn't get to end on a good note. Hopefully they can bounce back for indoor (track)."
The meet marked the end of the 2006 cross country season for the squad, including the last time seniors Neely, Burke and Neil Hamel will race cross country in Brown uniforms.
The team now turns its focus to indoor competition, which begins with the Alden Invitational on Dec. 2.
