McLean-Foreman and Galebach Miss NCAA Spots

In Saturday’s cold and extremely windy conditions, the Harvard men’s and women’s cross country team’s finished eighth out of 33 teams and 13th in a field of 36, respectively, at the NCAA Northeast Region Championships at Franklin Park in Boston.

Although the weather conditions did not overwhelm the runners, the Crimson definitely felt an effect from the wind.

“Times were generally a little bit slower,” junior captain Reed Bienvenu (31:22) said. “But everyone’s times moved back.”

Sophomore Timothy Galebach led the men with a personal record of 30:48.

Now, many of the runners will begin to change their focus to the upcoming track and field season.

Men

Two weeks after a disappointing team finish at Heptagonals, the Crimson, propelled by Galebach’s improvement, recorded a top-10 finish. After running 4:58.6 per mile over an eight-kilometer course to earn second place at Heps, junior Alasdair McLean-Foreman (30:37) followed up this week by averaging five minute miles and placing 11th, just a spot away from qualifying for the NCAA Championships.

Both McLean-Foreman and Galebach earned Second-Team All-Region honors for their efforts.

“Personally, I was disappointed to not finish in the top 10 and qualify for NCAAs,” McLean-Foreman said. “The race started out well for me but over 10k—as opposed to the 8K at Heps—I struggled during the later stages.”

A few of McLean-Foreman’s Ivy competitors whom he beat two weeks ago finished ahead of him at this week’s meet.

Brown’s Jeff Gaudette (30:10) and Yale’s Lucas Meyer (30:20) finished fourth and sixth, respectively.

Nevertheless, McLean-Foreman’s main focus is the 800-meter and 1,600-meter races, so he will be seeking revenge during the track season.

“It’s definitely something that I will be using to motivate myself when I come to race some of those guys over the shorter distances on the track,” McLean-Foreman said.

In the absence of a dominating performance by McLean-Foreman, Galebach stepped up by running a personal record and finishing 15th.

“Tim was injured at the beginning of the season, and it has taken him a couple of extra weeks to get in shape,” Bienvenu said. “Now he’s finally peaking. He really surprised himself.”

In fact, that was exactly the word Galebach used.

“I was really surprised,” he said. “I went out a little conservatively and for whatever reason it felt really good and I started passing people.”

With the Crimson just one of two Ivy teams that will return all its starters next year, Harvard is looking forward to an even better performance next season.

“Although we didn’t get the results we wanted this season I think our team had some pretty encouraging performances,” McLean-Foreman said. “Given that almost everyone is returning we should be very strong next year.”

Women

Without one of their best runners—senior Beverly Whelan—the Harvard women finished a respectable 13th.

No Crimson runner qualified for the national championships on the 6,000-meter course. Harvard normally competes in five-kilometer races.

“Sometimes mentally it can be hard to know you have to run that much longer,” junior Lindsey Yourman (23:49) said.

Junior Rosalinda Castaneda (22:37) finished 48th for the Crimson.

Whelan missed the last race of her cross-country career because of a case of bronchitis she contracted since Heps that threatened to develop into pneumonia if she exposed herself to the elements by running Saturday.

Yet her collegiate running career is not finished. Harvard’s female runners will also begin to shift their focus to the next season of running. For some runners, that’s not as easy as it sounds.

“I’m still relishing in the fun of cross-country season,” Yourman said, “But many of the girls are looking forward to the track season.”

For captain Mairead O’Callaghan (22:22) and the other seniors on the team, running this last cross-country race definitely had its emotional edge. Their emotion even trickled down as far as the freshman.

“It was a bittersweet [race] for [the seniors],” freshman Leslie Irvine said. “They were pretty excited when they finished their last Bear Cage Hill.”