Despite a season plagued by injuries, DePauw cross country finished strong at the Great Lakes Regional in Terre Haute.
The men’s team placed 12th out of 36 teams, while the women’s team faired better with a seventh place finish out of 33 teams.
“Collectively, it was our best performance thus far,” said senior Heather O’Brien. “It is great to end a season knowing we made continual improvements from day one to now.”
While neither team was able to advance to Nationals as a whole, freshman Paul Christian (13th, 25:43) and junior Claudia Monnett (9th, 22:19) qualified as individual runners for the NCAA Division III championships.
The tournament takes the top seven runners of each race who aren’t on a qualifying team. Christian and Monnett barely made the cut, as both finished 7th.
“This is the first season where I’ve surpassed my goals, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Christian. “I’m looking forward to representing DePauw…”
Behind Christian, the men’s team received strong races from sophomore Polo Burguete (27th, 26:01) and seniors Paul Watts (42nd, 26:16)) and Brian Mincks (88nd, 27:03). Junior Brad Wise (123rd, 27:36) rounded out the top-five finishes for the men.
On the women’s side, O’Brien posted another strong performance in her final race as a Tiger, finishing 21st with a 22:45. The lone senior on the women’s team was followed by freshman Megan Ozog (51st, 23:24) and juniors Becca Conley (64th, 23:36) and Lois Miler (68th, 23:44).
Along with having to run in a much more competitive field, the Tigers also faced one of the most difficult courses of the season. Besides playing host to the Division III Regional, the
“It’s such a challenging course, mentally and physically,” said Burguete. “It’s very easy to lose yourself mentally.”
But luckily for the first-years, the team had already run the course earlier in the season at the Indiana Intercollegiates.
“The course itself is a true cross country course- (it’s) rather hilly,” said Christian. “(It) definitely beat me the first time, but I knew what to expect and ran much faster this time around. Pretty much everyone dropped a lot of time between (the two meets).”
Looking forward to next season, the team will be graduating only three seniors in O’Brien, Watts and Mincks.
“Both teams will return enough talent that we can be better next year,” said Head Coach Kori Stoffregen. “We are really looking forward to taking our game to the next level.”
The Tigers will now look to finish their seasons through Christian and Monnet, who will be running on Saturday in the championships, which will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Winneconne, Wisconsin.
“I never expected to qualify for Nationals, so I’m really excited to be continually improving,” said Monnet. “I’m also hoping to be at Nationals with my whole team next year."