The men's cross country season came to a bittersweet end last Saturday, celebrating exciting individual highlights while also facing disappointment as a team. The team finished in seventh place at the New England D-III Championships hosted by Williams College.
Although the Polar Bears missed out on completing a string of five consecutive top-five finishes at the regional championship, many individual runners showed great improvement in their final race of the year.
Senior Stan Berkow led the pack, finishing his college career with his best race. Berkow placed 19th out of 333 runners, and improved on his 2009 regional championship finish by 12 places.
"Stan trained and competed with determination and class for four years," said coach Peter Slovenski. "He was always there for the team, and for his teammates."
Bowdoin showed serious depth in the championship. Both Colin Ogilvie '12 and Sam Seekins '14 made the All-New England team, coming in 26th and 28th place, respectively. Ogilvie finished nine places higher than he did in 2009, and Seekins finished a first season during which he was never out of the top five on the team.
Matt Hillard '12, Nick Saba '14, Charlie Berdahl '11 and Coby Horowitz '14 rounded out the team's top-seven finishers. Hillard improved his finish from last season by 35 places to end up in 37th, while Berdahl improved five places from 2009.
Although individually the runners saw great improvement, as a whole the team did not meet the high standards that it had set for itself. The team not only failed to place in the top five, but the Polar Bears also slipped in the rankings from No. 2 in October to No. 7 in November.
"A lot of our runners had their best races in November, but as a team, we were better in October," said Slovenski. "We had some great team highlights in October, but mostly individual highlights [at the regional championship]."
The strong first year contingent, led by powerhouse Horowitz, pushed the team toward many of its wins this year, including first place finishes at the Wesleyan Invitational and the State Championship and a strong performance at the Open New England Championship.