At the NCAA Cross Country D-III Championship in Hanover, Ind. two weeks ago, Lucy Skinner ’16 and Coby Horowitz ’14 both placed in the top 35 nationally, earning them All-American honors. In the women’s race, Skinner finished 30th overall with a time of 21:11.7, while Horowitz ran a 25:02.4 to take home a 12th-place finish for the men’s race.
Both Polar Bears ran races that Head Coach Peter Slovenski described as “courageous,” starting off conservatively and accelerating near the finish line to move into the top 35 runners.
Skinner, who finished ninth at the New England regionals, began the 6K race around 100th place for the first 1000 meters.
“I didn’t want to start out too fast,” Skinner said. “There was one race where I went out really far and didn’t feel very good.”
With this experience in mind, she chose to conserve her energy for the first part of the race. In the next 2000 meters, however, Skinner slowly pushed past 10 other runners, beginning a surge that saw her in 60th place at the halfway mark, 40th place at the 4000 meter mark and, in the final 1000 meters before the finish line, she moved from 36th to 30th despite facing wind and her own exhaustion.
“Lucy’s best races have been where she’s very patient in the opening mile, and then she really gets warmed up and confident and brings a lot of speed into her last mile,” said Slovenski. “Starting off moderately and finishing fast is probably our favorite strategy. It was great that Lucy could make this strategy work for her.”
In the men’s 8K race, Horowitz took a slightly more aggressive approach, hovering between places 40-60 after the gun went off.
“This year we were playing for a top 20 finish,” said Slovenski. “Trying for top 20, you don’t want to be quite as far back. You sometimes will be running against the people around you, and if you’re too far back, you’ll run out of time to move forward.”
Horowitz’s strategy paid off, placing him in 25th place at the 4-mile marker and allowing him to push past other runners in the last 800 meters.
“I knew then that there were about 10 people within striking distance, and maybe three more I could catch,” said Horowitz. “I knew I had 800 meters to make up a 100 meter gap to get up into the top 12 or so. The last 400 were really where three seconds is like four places so that was just kind of an all-out sprint."
In the last 400 meters, Horowitz faced an uphill sprint in which he pulled from 19th place to 12th.
“Once you get into the last 200, it’s pretty hard to pass anyone,” he said. “That’s kind of how you finish.”
Horowitz’s finish was enough to earn him his third-time All-American in cross country and ninth All-American overall.
“To have a top 12 finish at nationals on his last race as a senior was great to see,” said Slovenski. “Coby has had a lot of great races in his career, but this was a masterpiece.”