The men’s cross country team suffered a “disappointing” 21st place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday. The team qualified for the Championships after gaining an at-large bid following their third place finish at the NCAA Southeast Regional last weekend.
“The team performance sucked,” redshirt junior John Martinez said. “I’m really disappointed in the team this year.”
Martinez said there is an underlying problem within the team that must be addressed if the team wants to rebound next season.
“There wasn’t a total commitment there from a few of our guys,” Martinez said. “Next year that will be different. It has to be. If coach doesn’t say something, then I will. This year was disappointing for the program and for the school.”
Since last Saturday’s finish behind William & Mary and the University of Virginia, Martinez admits that the team hasn’t had the sort of momentum needed for a national championship.
“There’s always some sort of confidence that we have to have to be successful,” Martinez said. “All week we talked about things that could’ve been done and what people could’ve run.”
Sixth-year runner Bobby Mack, a former all-American, led the way for the Wolfpack running the 10K Terre Haute, Ind., course in 30:24.4, good for forty-seventh place. Martinez followed with a forty-ninth place finish (30:25.6).
“When we have two guys in the top 50 and our third guy at one-hundred-and-fourth you would think that we’d do better than we’ve done in the past, but it just didn’t work out for our four, five, six and seven guys,” Martinez said.
Even with their gloomy perspective on the outcome of the race, the runners did take note of one positive outcome of the meet.
“Ryan Hill had a great race as a freshman,” Mack said. “He had a higher finish than any freshman we’ve had in the past few years.”
Hill (eighty-third, 30:56.7), senior Gavin Coombs (one-hundred-and-forty-second, 31:31.2) and redshirt-freshman Andrew North (one-hundred-and-seventieth, 31:54) rounded out the 473 point team score for State.
Oregon, a cross country powerhouse, secured the title for the second straight year finishing with a team score of 93.
This year, Oregon senior Galen Rupp (29:03.2) held off Liberty runner Samuel Chelanga (29:08) to lead his team to yet another national championship with his first place finish. Rupp managed to overcome Chelanga’s attempt to take the lead with a starting line sprint.
“Going in, we knew it was a real possibility that he might do that,” Rupp said. “I knew I was going to have to run smart and stay focused on what was going to be the best plan to be successful.”
Martinez recalled meeting Rupp when they roomed together during the USA Cross Country Championships in the summer of 2005.
“He’s kind of someone that you either love or hate, like the New York Yankees of running,” Martinez said. “I like him, though. He’s a really humble guy who works hard in all that he does.”
Like Rupp, both Mack and Martinez were hoping to gain All-American accolades.
“We were gunning for all-American,” Mack said. “Unfortunately, they changed the format this year where it’s the top 40 without taking out foreigners, so we really needed to be about six or seven seconds quicker this year to snag that all-American award. “
Nonetheless, Mack is happy to finally have closure in his final season
“Overall, I never would’ve thought I would’ve been back on the team this year running so well,” he said. “I’m glad to finish out the season rather than ending back in 2004 as a sophomore with an injury.”
