The men’s and women’s cross-country teams opened their seasons this past Saturday at the University of Southern Maine (USM) Invitational.
Men’s Captain Coby Horowitz ’14 and the rest of Bowdoin’s squad justified their preseason ranking of fifth in D-III, as they placed a close third in the competitive USM Invitational. Ahead of them by one point was Bates, with 85, ranked No. 7 nationally. The somewhat surprising victor was MIT with 37 points, ranked at No. 28 before the race.
Bowdoin was missing its second-best runner and team leader, senior captain Sam Seekins, whom Head Coach Peter Slovenski elected to rest because of a relatively minor training injury. Last year, Seekins was runner-up at the New England Division III Championships.
Horowitz won the meet by a second, finishing just ahead of Bates’ Mike Martin, whom he chased down over the last 200-meter stretch. Despite the close finish, the win was a continuance of Horowitz’s dominance, as he won his third straight regional race in the past year. The current captain finished his penultimate season on a high-note by winning the NESCAC and New England Division III Championships. For his efforts, Horowitz was named the Athlete of the Week for the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) and the NESCAC Cross Country Performer of the Week.
Horowitz will gladly welcome back Seekins this weekend, as the Polar Bears host the Bowdoin Invitational.
“Having Sam back will be huge,” said Horowitz. “He makes it a lot easier because having a teammate there will push me when I feel like I can’t keep going.”
Some of the younger runners also played important roles for the Polar Bears, as first year Matthew Jacobson finished fourth among all Bowdoin runners, eighth among all first years, and 31st overall. Nick Walker ’16 was right behind him, placing 33rd overall. Horowitz complimented the two younger runners on the tough work they put in over the summer. He stressed that Jacobson needed to not push too hard and burn out at the beginning of the season before adjusting to the longer distances run in college. Slovenski seemed to think Horowitz was leading by example.
“The seniors showed a lot of intelligence in the way they ran [at USM],” he said. He looks for the team to continue its strong start tomorrow, when they host the Bowdoin Ivitational at noon.
Women’s The women placed 8th overall, just making the top half of the 19-team field. The meet featured five teams from the ultra-competitive NESCAC. All finished in the top eight, a sign of the tough season to come. Last year, the team finished seventh out of eleven in the NESCAC championship and eleventh out of 51 in the D-III New England Championships. Six NESCAC teams finished in the top ten at New England’s, cementing the NESCAC’s reputation as the toughest D-III conference in the region.
Despite graduating several key athletes last year, the team looks to improve throughout the season. Slovenski, now in his 28th season at Bowdoin, attributes the team’s good work ethic and optimistic attitude to the example set by his seniors.
“The team has a great attitude,” said Slovenski. “They have had really good leadership through the September workouts.”
Madalena Rizzo ’14, the fastest of the seniors, finished second among Bowdoin runners at USM, coming in at 44th overall with a time of 19:24.06 on the 5-kilometer course. The team’s top performer on this day was Lucy Skinner ’16 who finished fifth overall—her best collegiate showing to date, with a time of 18:24.23.
Slovenski was keen to describe Skinner as “patient in her training,” and attributed her success to working hard over the summer. He said she had done “very good training in running and other activities such as rock climbing… She’s become a very athletic runner.”
Skinner herself was modest about her performance.
“I just run—I don’t have a plan,” she said of her goals for the season. She said she is inspired by her senior teammates.
The women host the Bowdoin Invitational tomorrow. The race begins at 11 a.m. on Pickard Cross Country Course.
