Volume CXXXIII, Number 6 October 19, 2001 f

Men's X-C finishes 11th at Open New Englands
ALEX MOORE
STAFF WRITER

The Bowdoin Men's Cross Country Team traveled to Franklin Park last Friday to compete in Open New Englands--a race open to any college in the region. The Bowdoin men, though somewhat stifled by the 80-degree temperature and the swirling dust clouds throughout the course, raced well enough to finish in 11th place, out of 42 total teams.

The Polar Bears finished second among Division III teams, behind 10th place Tufts University.

The overall race was won by Division I powerhouse Providence College, followed by second-place Harvard and third-place Yale.

Captain Todd Forsgren '03 finished first for the Bears, and 26th overall, with a time of 25:29. He was the fifth DIII finisher in the race.

Senior captain Steve Allison finished one second behind Forsgren and took 28th place.

Jeff Rubens '03, running only his second race in the past two years, finished in 74th place, running the 5-mile course in 26:20.

Conor O'Brien '03 finished 107th, and was only 21 seconds behind Rubens. Bowdoin's fifth runner, Ben Peisch '05, finished in 136th place. Scott Barbuto '03 had some trouble with the dusty conditions, but still finished 158th, and Alex Moore '03 finished 190th.

Head coach Peter Slovenski was particularly impressed with O'Brien's performance. "Conor came through with a championship-level race," he said. "He was our sixth man after one mile, but he had a terrific final 3000 meters and finished as our fourth runner. His performance made the difference for us in the race."

In the sub-varsity race, Bowdoin finished 11th. Captain Rich Sherman '02 ran with poise and confidence, finishing 23rd overall with a time of 27:08. Taylor Washburn '04 finished 59th and was followed by Jason Colombino '02 and Kevin Doyle '04.

"I don't think that we ran as well as we had hoped," Sherman said. "Then again, we didn't have all of our top runners.

"Many of our guys rose to the challenge and ran some great times, considering the hot and dusty conditions in Boston," he continued. "The race boosted the confidence [of the runners] and gave some extra motivation to run well next week at NESCACs."

Bowdoin hosts the NESCAC Cross Country Championships next Saturday. Last year, the men finished second only to Williams and hope to win the Championship on their home course this time around.

"This is an outstanding course for spectators...[they] can run around to see a lot of the race and get in a good workout," Coach Slovenski said. "It's a very exciting course, because the race goes by a central field several times, but it also has some remote sections where things can change out of sight. We expect a large and loud crowd for the NESCAC race."