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Volume CXXXII, Number 11 |
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Women's XC runs to 14th place
GRACE CHO
STAFF WRITER
As the runners lined up on the starting line, the Bowdoin Women's Cross Country Team waited anxiously for the gun to go off that would signal the start of the race. The race ahead of the women was the Division III Cross Country National Championships, hosted by St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota on November 23, 2002.
Windy conditions made the hilly 6,000-meter course a little more challenging, but the Polar Bears were looked to prove they could run with the best of the best teams and individuals from around the nation.
"The race is intense, to say the least, because the pack is all women running fast times," said senior Bre McKenna of the national championship.
Leading the way for the team was sophomore Ellen Beth. Beth, running a time of 22:47 and placing fifty-first, helped the women place fourteenth out of 24 teams. Immediately following Beth in the finish chute were teammates Libby Barney '03, Mary Beth Sexton '05, Katie Landry '05, and final scorer Bre McKenna '03. The Bowdoin women had the thinnest time spread of the day between the team's first and final scorers. Only 56.8 seconds separated first runner Beth and fifth runner McKenna at the end of the race.
Head coach Peter Slovenski was proud of the women's results at Nationals. Hoping to see top sixteen team results, he was ecstatic with the fourteenth place just as much as the team.
"Despite the wind…the team came out under our goal of sixteenth to take fourteenth, which was awesome," said senior co-captain Bre McKenna.
The women's team placing fourteenth was not the single reason for the smile on Slovenski's face that afternoon. Watching his two senior co-captains Libby Barney and Bre McKenna take charge and collectively bring together the team at nationals made Slovenski happy to have coached two such seniors to the final cross country race of their collegiate careers.
"I was especially proud of Bre McKenna and Libby Barney for their great leadership of the team…the seniors showed great poise and composure," said Slovenski.
The rest of the team was also grinning, knowing they ran their best and achieved their goals for the season.
Summing up the emotions of the team, McKenna said, "To be able to say we accomplished what we were looking for was tremendous for our last meet."
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