Championship site
Course map
The
Allegheny College men’s cross country program reached unchartered waters on both individual and team levels during last Saturday’s Mideast Regional at
Lehigh University. The Gators, who entered the meet ranked sixth in NCAA Division III, scored 59 team points and bested a field which included four other ranked schools. Meanwhile, Chris Marker became the first-ever individual regional champion in school history, finishing with an 8-kilometer time of 24:54.3.
“To go in and beat the teams that we beat is a nice accomplishment,” said Gator head coach Bill Ross. “They were all nationally ranked and so close to us.”
The schools included in that list were No. 8 Dickinson, No. 14 Carnegie Mellon, No. 15 Haverford and No. 31 Elizabethtown.
Allegheny hopes success will continue into Saturday when they compete in the NCAA Division III Championships for the 18
th time. They look to finish in the top 10 for the fourth straight season.
“Our goal is always the Top 10,” said Ross. “If we score 200 points or less, we could finish in the Top 4. In order to do that, we have to get as many of our runners to finish in the Top 35.”
The Gators had six runners finish in the Top 35 at Regionals, thus achieving All-Region status. Finishing in the top 35 at the NCAA meet ensures All-America honors.
Junior Jeramie Parker was the runner-up behind Marker at Lehigh. He is one of four runners who competed for Allegheny at last season’s National Championship meet. He finished 127
th while Tony Dipre was 25
th, Zac Ross took 85
th and Jake Zimmerman placed 135
th. Ross and Dipre also competed nationally in 2007, finishing 69
th and 151
st, respectively.
The foursome – each of whom was an All-Region honoree along with Marker and Ryan Sullivan – will compete this weekend. Matt Lacombe will complete the top seven.
Coach Ross believes experience gained from Nationals the previous year and other highly-competitive meets is impactful to a team’s potential.
“We take a different approach to Nationals than we do at Regionals,” he said. “Running meets like the Paul Short Run is a lot closer experience. There’s not too many meets like it (Nationals).”
Asked of the team to beat, Ross believes North Central (
Ill.) is the outright favorite, however, he will not discount the Gators’ chances of competing for first place.
“It will be a literal fistfight for the next three spots,” said the coach. “When we finished third in 2006, we were not expected to be near that. We have to run a perfect race
– which we have not done to this point – and some of the other teams have to faulter a little.”
The only fact that Ross can promise is the presence of the Allegheny faithful. Several Gator supporters and teammates were unable to make the five-hour trip to Lehigh in
Bethlehem,
Pa., however, the contingent is expected to grow for Saturday’s two-hour trip to Highland Park Golf Course, just east of
Cleveland.
“It’s nice to have the NCAA meet close to home, said Ross. “We’ll have a good fan base. There will be lots of fellow Gators in attendance, so hopefully that inspires our guys to go out there and have a good performance.”