The Elizabethtown College cross country team competed in the Oberlin College Inter-Regional Rumble this past Saturday in Oberlin, Ohio. Of the 32 competing teams, both teams took eighth place.
With a time of 25:18.2 and finishing first for the Etown men, senior Aaron Focht crossed the line as the 40th runner in the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble. Following Focht were junior Matt Rever, who took 45th place with a time of 25:22.3, and junior Stephen Welsh, who took 47th place with a time of 25:24.9. The Etown men’s team had their top three runners in the top 50 runners in the Rumble. First-year Matt Shenk finished as the fourth Blue Jay across the finish line with a time of 25:42.3 and rounding out the men’s top five was sophomore Dan Gresh at 97th in 26:01.1
For the women’s team, junior Traci Tempone finished second in the Oberlin Rumble in 21:12.90. Tempone crossed the finish line with only three seconds separating her from race winner Kristen Galligan of Washington & Jefferson College.
Senior Taryn Shank finished 17th with a time of 22:02.1, which is her fastest time since she competed in the NCAA Division III Championship her sophomore year. Senior Megan Patton finished third for Etown in 82nd place with a time of 23:14.4. Following Patton was junior Eileen Cody with 23:21.7 in 92nd overall and junior Amanda Kerno at 23:26.3 in 97th.
Sophomore Amelia Tearnan made the top 100 runners, placing 99th with a running time of 23:27.6. The women were competing against 270 other racers. The Etown women’s team was two points shy of finishing seventh in the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble. Outscoring the Blue Jays was Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.) with 260 points while Etown scored 262 points.
Rivals of the Jays in the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble included Carnegie Melon University, host Oberlin, SUNY Geneseo State, New York University, Case Western University and Ithaca College.
Sophomore Ricky Sturz said that before meets like the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble, there are a few predictions that the team can make as to how they will perform in the meet. By comparing teams’ records of how they raced against other competitors and how their season is going so far and Etown’s past racing time against the same rivals, the Blue Jays predict how they will fare the next time around. Sturz also shed some light on the unknown factors such as injuries, runners coming off an injury and some runners that just have the race of their lives. “It’s hard to tell for sure because there are so many factors that come into runners individually running a race and the team running as a whole in a race,” Sturz said.
As for mental preparation, the coach gives a great deal of advice in prepping his team to race the best that they can. “Don’t get nervous, don’t psych yourself out and set larger goals is what the coach normally says,” Sturz said. The best advice that Head Coach Brain Falk has given Sturz is the technique of “step-counting.” Sturz explained the technique as “picking a racer five to six places in front of you. When that racer passes an obstacle, count how many steps it takes for you to reach that obstacle. So say you’re 18 steps away from hem on the first obstacle, then the next obstacle, try to be 16 steps or less from them. That’s how you know you’re making progress.”