DePauw University’s men’s and women’s cross country teams collected a pair of top five finishes on Friday at the Indiana Intercollegiates in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Competing against Division I, II and III schools, the scores were broken down into two categories. The top class featured all Division I schools while, all the others, including DePauw, were scored separately.
“Indiana Intercollegiates is such a fun meet for me because even when an opponent is wearing a jersey representing IU, Purdue or Ball State, that doesn’t mean much to me once the race starts,” junior Heather O’Brien said.
Leading the way for the men’s team to their fifth place finish was junior Paul Watts who finished 14th overall in the event. Watts ran the 8,000 meter course in just under 27 minutes.
“I feel like I had a really solid race,” Watts said. “It’s always fun to race against D1 and D2 guys and see where you stack up. We don’t get many opportunities to race teams like IU and Purdue, but I feel like we really capitalized on the chance we had.”
In addition to Watts, four other Tigers scored in the race. Senior Noah Gatwood crossed the finish line at 27:02, followed by first-year Polo Burguete 45 seconds later. First-year Chris Lowry finished 51st while sophomore Brad Wise was 56th.
“I’d say that Friday showed that we have a lot of potential for this guy’s team,” Wise said. “Inspite of not having one of our captains running, we had some guys like Chris Lowry really step up and have solid races.”
Watts thought the first-years on the team came out strong.
“We’re really gaining momentum as a team,” Watts said. “The incoming freshman class has had to really step up, and they’ve handled it well.”
With 183 points, the Tigers finished 157 points behind the overall winner, Wabash College.
DePauw’s women’s team had a little bit more success as they came in third out of the 20 non-Division I schools competing in the event and were the top Division III school to compete.
“It was a great accomplishment for us," O'Brien said, "and we are moving in the right direction as to where we need to be as a team."
As with the men, five Tigers had times fast enough to be scored.
Heather O’Brien finished the three mile run in 18:22, a time good enough for fourth place overall. Sophomore Emma MacAnally finished in 13th with a time of 18:49 and senior Hope Jordan was 32nd crossing the line exactly one minute after O’Brien.
“I felt very strong and confident during the race,” O’Brien said. “When you have the opportunity to race with the varsity D1 girls, you have to take advantage and be aggressive in your racing. I was able to keep my pace and move up place-wise throughout the entire race which was essentially my goal."
Rounding out the scorers for the Tigers were first-year Hallie Bechtel and sophomore Lois Miller, who both tied for 34th.
The Tigers finished the day with 119 points, 75 behind the overall winner, Taylor University.
Next up for both teams is the Pre-Nationals event held in Mason, Ohio on Saturday. Including that race, the Tigers will have only two chances to improve before they face the NCAC championships and the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in October.