The men's cross-country team will reach the most important juncture of its season this weekend. The runners will compete at the State Championship here at Bowdoin tomorrow. The race will be their fourth of the seven that constitute the season and will serve as a major indicator of the season's overall success.
The team will be running with plenty of momentum behind it, coming off of a strong showing this past Saturday at the Open New England Championships in Boston. The Bowdoin men finished 11th in a field with many D-I, II and III teams.
First year powerhouse Coby Horowitz placed 22nd overall and fourth out of D-III runners. He was followed on the Bowdoin team by Stan Berkow '11, Matt Hillard '12 and Nicholas Saba '14, who finished in 52nd, 74th and 100th respectively. The Bears placed second out of all the NESCAC schools, which also led to a second-place place ranking out of all New England D-III schools.
While the runners are obviously in top physical shape for their meets, a strong mind is often the key to success at this point of the season.
"The night before, I'll visualize the course and try to imagine how I'll feel at each major point in the race," said Horowitz. "That way when the race rolls around you have somewhat of an idea how it will play out."
These mental preparations will be crucial for the Polar Bears as they enter the State Championships this Saturday.
The team will be striving to uphold a five-year winning streak for this race, and will also have the advantage of having run the course before, including the gully that, on the team's blog, Dan Palken '14 describes as "notorious and difficult."
The runners' familiarity with the intricacies of their home course and knowledge of their previous victories in this race will surely help them to go into this weekend with a confident and dominant mindset.
Team members remain focused on the task at hand.
"It's mainly staying healthy and running our workouts and long runs smartly," said Horowitz. "Physical preparations can be exceedingly helpful, but it's usually the mental ones that make the biggest difference in the middle of the season."