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Volume CXXXIII, Number 7 |
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A little healthy competition between teammates: The men's perspective
BEN PEISCH
STAFF WRITER
People run for different reasons. Some enjoy working up a good sweat, some enjoy challenging themselves, and some simply enjoy celebrating the outdoors. The Bowdoin Men's Cross Country Team embodies all of these characteristics, but the primary reason they love to run is that once a year, for 3.1 blissful miles, they have the opportunity to dominate both the women's team and the old, creaky, Bowdoin alumni in a cross country race.
The weather was simply sublime for a brutal massacre. Despite the distraction of having to host dozens of strange people over the weekend claiming to be "alumni", "friends," and "former teammates", the men were calm, focused, and ready. They did not allow themselves to be sucked into the crazy mind games of the women's team.
"We're just running a workout," senior captain Lynne Davies whined, "I don't know why the guys are so serious. I thought these types of races were supposed to be fun."
"Silly Lynne," laughed Dan Hall '05, "She must be a masochist or something, because there is nothing fun about being steamrolled into oblivion."
With that, the women were off. They were given a three minute and twenty second head start before the mighty men blasted off the line, enduring multiple cheap shot attacks from jealous alumni in the first straightaway.
About a half mile into the race, Pat Vardaro '03, the school's 5k record holder, muttered the now-famous last words, "You guys keep running. I'm going to go puke."
With Vardaro out of contention, the men could focus on catching the women's team. Slowly but surely, they pulled themselves closer to victory.
"We tracked [the women] like laser-guided missiles fired from a nuclear submarine stationed in Mallet's Bay," said Aaron Goldstein '05, "It was so hot."
Sure enough, the men muscled their way past the women to nail down a convincing 119-174 victory. Scott "Scooter" Herrick '04 was the first male finisher. Shortly after Scooter came Owen "Wrongway" McKenna '07, Andrew Combs '06, Pat Hughes '05, and captains Benjamin Peisch '05 and Taylor Washburn '04. Also placing in the top ten for the men were Eric Sofen '07, Ben Martens '06, Greydon Foil '05, and Michael Record '06. Adding the exclamation point was Jonah Popp '06, who threw struggling alumni Dan Gulotta '03 into the hurt locker en route to a huge victory over his nemesis, the "guy racing in blue jean shorts".
After the race, the men were so pumped up with testosterone they spent the rest of the afternoon doing "manly" activities, such as hunting and Greco-Roman wrestling. The girls, meanwhile, enjoyed a quiet afternoon with old friends up for the weekend.
"Yeah, those guys really got into it," said Katie Landry '05 over tea. "The race got weird as soon as Ben Peisch elbowed me into the woods. I was like 'was that really necessary?' I mean, we're supposed to be teammates, and it's the [expletive deleted] alumni race. It's not like it's Nationals or anything."
Peisch could not be reached for comment.
The men and women hope to reconcile their differences and join forces before traveling to Middlebury, VT to compete in the NESCAC championships on Saturday afternoon. Both teams will be faced with stiff competition, but when they combine the women's intellectual approach with the men's barbaric desire to win at all costs, they will each be extremely difficult to beat.
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