After racing against New England teams for the entire fall season, Bowdoin's top runners—Colman Hatton '10 and Thompson Ogilvie '10—will have the chance to show the rest of the nation what they can do when they compete in the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday.
By finishing fifth and 10th respectively last Saturday at the New England D-III Championship, Ogilvie and Hatton earned individual invitations to the national championship race.
Head Coach Peter Slovenski said, "Colman and Thompson are among the three or four mentally toughest athletes I've coached in twenty years at Bowdoin. They're hard to beat because they have a lot of poise and intelligence in big races. They have a lot of guts during the final two miles, and they never give up."
Though the team exceeded expectations by placing fifth out of 47 at the regional race, Bowdoin fell short of an at-large invitation to the NCAA Championship when it finished just eight points behind Brandeis.
By claiming the top three spots of Saturday's race, Williams, Amherst, and Keene State will join Brandeis as the other New England representatives at the national championship.
"We were disappointed that we weren't selected, but we were proud that we had our best race of the season," said Slovenski. "We were about 10 points short of our goal, but it's a great honor to be a top-five team in New England."
Despite their disappointment, Hatton still saw plenty of positives to take away from Saturday's race.
"It was pretty awesome," said Hatton. "Everyone came through big. We could not have run any better. Everyone showed up with their A-game. Top five was what we were shooting for all year, so it was pretty awesome to come through in the clutch. The crowd was great. It was also really great to run so close to home since a lot of Bowdoin students and fans braved the weather to come out to see us run."
In addition to the top-10 finishes from Ogilvie and Hatton, Colin Ogilvie '12 and Stan Berkow '11 finished 28th and 33rd respectively.
For finishing in the top-35 spots, the four runners received All-New England honors.
"There was some really good teamwork going on during the race," said Ogilvie. "Colman and I ran well together. Stan and Colin also worked really well with each other. We were all pushing each other really hard during the race, which was one of the main reasons for our success."
Reflecting upon a highly successful campaign, the Polar Bears felt that they could not have ended the season on a better note.
"We had a really great season," said Ogilvie. "We were kind of overlooked by the New England and national polls. However, we had great races and upsets during the season. Overall, it was a really, really fun season and I think our results on Saturday just shows how hard we worked and how we overcame these obstacles."
Though the rest of the team will not be running alongside them in Cleveland on Saturday, Ogilvie and Hatton hope to add to their team's success this season with strong finishes of their own.
"Thompson and I are ready to represent Bowdoin and show the rest of the country that Polar Bears are made of," said Hatton. "A lot of top talent from all D-III shows from across the nation will be there. It's the best of the best. There is nothing to lose, so Thompson and I will look to run as fast as we can."
Correction: Article headline was corrected for online version to "Men’s XC comes in fifth among 47 teams at New England Tournament," from the original print version that said men's cross-country came in seventh out of 48 teams.