Crossing the finish line, senior cross country standout Noah Droddy may have felt a little lonely. Wearing his gold and black jersey and matching sweatband, he finished the Gibson Family Meet 16 seconds ahead of any other runner.
Racing in Terra Haute, Ind., on Saturday, the men's and women's cross country teams both fared well in the highly-anticipated pre-national contest. The men placed 15th and the women's team 13th overall. Thirty-four schools from 14 states participated in DePauw's fourth race this season. Johns Hopkins University's women's team came away with the win, while the men from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps finished first with 77 points.
Freshman Heather O'Brien led the pack for the women, placing 25th out of 325 racers and aiding in the 400 points scored. Seconds behind was Hope Jordan, placing 49th. Head coach Kori Stoffregen was extremely pleased with other members of the team stepping up in light of minor injuries to Siri Retrum and Megan Everhart.
"When that happens it can be kind of devastating, you hope people will step up in their place, and three girls, (junor) Ashley Guevara, (sophomore) Emma Clor and (senior) Emily Freiny ran really good races," Stoffregen said.
Droddy covered the course with a time of 25:13.7, his fastest time since placing fourth at the Calvin Invitational.
"It's really exciting that Noah won," Stoffregen said. "He's fired up, he's comfortable, and this is just what he needed to give him confidence for the national meet on that same course."
The runners will soon travel to Oshkosh, Wis., for the Brooks Invitational - the last regular-season race before NCAC conference play.
"We're excited for this race. I hear there's lots of team bonding," O'Brien said. "We're going into fall break, there's no school, and it will be nice to focus on just the team."
Stoffregen agreed the Brooks Invitational will allow for great times and the necessary momentum to carry the team into the post-season.
"We were a little rusty as it was our first race back in three weeks," Stoffregen said. "I think we'll really see the fruits of our labor at Oshkosh."