Before competing in arguably its biggest meet of the season next week at the Open New England Championship, the men's cross-country team will travel to Colby on Saturday to compete against Colby and the University of Maine-Farmington.
Unlike the first two meets of the season, the Polar Bears will be competing without their top runners, who will be resting in preparation for the highly competitive New England meet. Nonetheless, Saturday's meet will still be just as important as any other.
"This is the time for us to show that we are really a solid team, and show how deep we can be," said senior captain Thompson Ogilvie. "It gives the JV guys a big confidence booster, and it gives us [the top runners] a rest, which is important because of how long the cross country season is."
Colman Hatton '10 also acknowledged that the team would benefit greatly from the meet at Colby.
"It is an opportunity for the team to preview the state meet course," Hatton said. "It would be terrific if we could win this meet without some of our top guys, which will show the strength of our depth as a team."
Bowdoin's top runners certainly earned a well-deserved rest before another major meet, especially after the team finished second overall at the Connecticut College Invitational last Saturday, the team's first major meet of the season. The Polar Bears scored 64 points, only trailing Tufts, who finished with 48 points.
"It was definitely a good day. We were really excited to finish second overall because it was a big invitational and there was a lot of good competition," said Hatton. "We showed that we are ready for bigger competition and that we can run with the best teams in the region. I think it is really important for the big meets later in the season because it gives us confidence that we can stay with the best of them."
Thompson Ogilvie was the top finisher for Bowdoin, placing third in the 8K race. The other top scorers included Hatton, who finished fifth overall, while Stan Berkow '11 (12th), Colin Ogilvie '12 (17th) and Matt Hillard '12 (27th) rounded out the scoring for the Polar Bears.
"The team has been building up strength for the championships, and we showed a lot of strength in this invitational," said Head Coach Peter Slovenski. "We learned that we have the front-runners and the depth to be a great team, but we'll have to be ready to tighten up our five-runner spread in November."
For now, the team will take things steadily, one meet at a time.
"It's still early in the season, and we are saving our best for later," said Hatton. "We don't need to really want to blow anyone out of the water quite yet, but we are running well right now so that's a sign of good things to come."