Smith Qualifies to NCAA Championships; Cross Country Notches Pair of Top 10 Finishes at Regionals

With the finish line just a few meters away at this weekend’s NCAA Northeast Regionals, Harvard cross country’s sophomore Courtney Smith had fifth place and an automatic individual berth to the 2015 NCAA Championships in the palm of her hand.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw an opponent, New Hampshire’s Laura Rose Donegan, bearing down on her, threatening to take away the top-five finish. However, Smith found the extra gear she needed, as the sophomore held off Donegan. It was the cherry on top for the Crimson athlete, who fulfilled her goal of qualifying to the championships.

“It was really exciting,” Smith said. “All season this is what I was hoping to qualify for, so it was really nice to finally see our training and hard work pay off.”

The Crimson men’s and women’s cross country teams both competed at regionals this weekend, races that offered opportunities to obtain team and individual qualification to the national championships. The women finished sixth overall, while the men ranked eighth, falling short of the top-two team finishes required for an automatic berth.

Smith’s time of 20:42 over the six kilometer course put her first among Harvard runners and fifth overall out of 256 at this weekend’s race, held at Franklin Park in Boston. The women’s team ranked sixth as a team out of 38, a significant improvement on last year’s 11th-place finish.

“Our goal this year was definitely to make nationals,” captain Paige Kouba said. “But given the arc of this season, and our finish at the conference meet a couple weeks ago, coming back and getting a solid race was a good testament to the resilience of the team. I’m really proud of our girls for putting themselves out there and not letting the discouragement affect them.”

Sophomore Elianna Shwayder and Kouba finished second and third, respectively, among Crimson runners. Shwayder’s time of 21:36 saw her come 31st overall, while Kouba placed 39th with a time of 21:45. Senior Emma Payne came in at 22:00, good for 54th and was followed closely by freshman Kathryn Gillepsie, who posted a 22:08 and finished 58th.

The race started somewhat uniquely for the runners, with the athletes being greeted by a bottleneck just 400 meters into the meet. While early clustering can disrupt the pace of runners unfamiliar with tight, physical, shoulder-to-shoulder racing, this wasn’t an issue for a Harvard team that calls Franklin Park its home site. Instead, Crimson runners were able to take advantage of their familiarity and get settled into the race quickly.

“It was also really windy,” Smith said, “So I wanted to tuck in the front pack but not necessarily be leading and relax for the first mile or so. It was our home course, the course we practice on, so I knew it really well, and I could work the hills.”

On the men’s side, the team bounced back from a disappointing Heps performance, finishing eighth out of 37 teams in the 10-kilometer race. Harvard’s squad was paced by co-captain Chris Allen, who ran his way to 28th place with a time of 31:27.

“The race went out pretty slow, and it was pretty tactical at the start,” Allen said. “It was all about getting in a good position, and once the race heated up, you had to be ready to go.”

Sophomore Ben Huffman, junior Brandon Price, and freshman Austin Gilbert followed Allen for the Crimson, finishing 52nd, 56th, and 62nd, respectively. The trio finished within seconds of each other, with Huffman finishing in 31:48, Price in 31:54, and Gilbert in 31:58.

Sophomore Gabe Montague rounded out the Crimson’s scoring runners with a time of 32:13, good for 76th. Their times helped Harvard finish sandwiched between Ivy League rivals Yale, who came in seventh, and Brown, who ended ninth.