On a frigidly cold and icy day, the Oswego State men’s and women’s cross country teams ran at their final event of the season, the NCAA Atlantic Regionals. The invitational, held at St. Lawrence University, was ran on Saturday and both teams were able to meet the expectations of head coach Jacob Smith, with the men’s team finishing in 31st of 42 teams and the women’s side finished 28th of 38 teams.
“From an individual standpoint, most of the individuals on our team ran fairly well,” Smith said. “We did as well as we were capable of. Obviously, we want to do better relative to the other teams, but we just have to improve as we have been.”
One of the really impressive performances was from Hannah Hertik in the 6K. She led the Lakers with a time of 25:30.6, which is good for a top-half finish at regionals, as she landed in 135th place of 270 racers. While Hertik was not able to eclipse her personal best of 25:00.1, that record was set back on Oct. 12. Fast forward just over a month and the dynamic of racing changes. At regionals, there was snow and ice covering the ground, resulting in slower times for every team and performer.
The other top performers for the women’s side include Jamie Kasza and Sarah Rappleye who ran a 26:17.1 and a 26:30.6, respectively.
For the men’s side, it was led by freshman Gabriel Winters-Bona. He ran well with an 8K time of 26:47.6, which is good for 80th of 300 runners. For Winters-Bona, it is impressive to see an underclassman set the pace for the Lakers. With as many as three more seasons under Smith, the two are both very excited to see where he will end up.
“He’s got great potential to really accomplish a lot of great things individually and that’s going to help our team improve long-term,” Smith said. “I can’t wait to see what he does and that’s part of the fun of being a coach, just getting to see people progress over the course of their career.”
Perhaps Winters-Bona’s greatest accomplishment so far is his personal best of 26:40.0, which he ran at the SUNYAC Championship meet on Nov. 2. Another impressive accolade is his fifth-place finish at the SUNY New Paltz Invitational. While these are impressive, Winters-Bona is looking to help his team out, as well as bettering himself over his next several seasons as a Laker.
“I can’t wait to see what opportunities it brings to me after college and during college,” Winters-Bona said. “Hopefully with my improvement, I can help other people, as well … so the team will improve and we can get better placement at SUNYACs and regionals.”
The men’s team has three other members record sub-29-minute races. Junior Matthew Barbookles ran the 8K race in 28:01.8, while Nathan Couse and Eric Perez were not far behind with times of 28:30.7 and 28:55.7.
What was really good for the state of the programs is how the athletes used their minds during the race. While it will not show up on the final standings of the meet, the teams were able to run their race plans extremely well, despite the conditions.
“Everyone did a good job dealing with the conditions and not letting it affect them mentally or defeat them,” Smith said. “We work on trying to avoid the biggest mistake in racing, which is to go out too fast. We did an excellent job with that. If you look at the results, everyone on our team moved up many many places from the first initial split until the final.”
Graphic by Patrick Higgins | The Oswegonian
