These meet recaps always get lost in the emails and so I decided to compile them all here for easy access for any future club historians.
Cavalier Cross Country Invite
On September 16th, your fearless Terrapins (except President Sohan Ganatra) were up bright and early to make the pilgrimage to Earlysville, Virginia for the Cavalier Invitational. The men’s race started out quick, with Andrew Cullen dominating the field for the first 400 meters of the race during his takeover of the @UMDClubrunning Instagram page. Andrew proceeded to let someone else have a chance at the spotlight and slowed down to interview other people in the race during his Instagram livestream.
Leading the pack was Sam Fields in 3rd place, with an 8k PR in 26:57, winning some random running store bag. He was followed by the strong pack of Abhy Srivatsa in 9th, Tony Boscolo in 11th, Day Leone in 12th, Jonah Plotkin in 31st, Ben Waterman 34th, and Dylan Schmidt in 41st to round out our top 7. Overall, our men’s team placed 2nd behind a very stacked Virginia Tech Men’s team (they won some lame bubble wand so I don’t think we missed much).
Christopher Withee, Edwin Perez-Jaimes, Edward Broadberry, Patrick Torre, Zach Starr, Evan Masiello, Abel Bisrat, Harrison Fike, Ryan Bjornson, and Sean Quiroga, all made their UMD Club Running 8k debuts.
An hour later, the women’s team toed the line. Leading the charge was Anna Weiksner in 25:45 for 10th overall. She was followed by Ella Quigley in her club running debut in 17th, Brooke Walz in 24th, Lillian Hsu in 25th, Emily Jiang 53rd, Fatima Younis 77th, and Maggie Krieg in 80th to round out the scoring 7 for the women’s team. Amanda Burke and Mandy Callaghan (Throw for Dough winner at the UVA football game) both made their UMD Club Running Cross Country debuts this weekend.
Paul Short Invite
It was a long and action-packed day at the Paul Short Run. Starting a with 5:00am leaving time, the club made the journey up to Lehigh University for one of the biggest cross-country meets on the East Coast. The course was a mud fest, and the terps ran hard through it all.
The men were led by Sam Fields, in 172nd, followed by Day Leone, Tony Boscolo, Abhy Srivatsa, and Jared Kimiabakhsh (In his club debut) to round out the top 5. Ryan Tyberg, Ryken Mak, Logan Cyford, Joseph Jackson, Michael Brown, and Somiron Kundu all also made their debut with the club at the meet.
The women were led by Griffin Kaulbach, followed by Anna Weiksner, Lillian Hsu, Brooke Walz, and Carolyn Catan for the top 5. We also saw club debuts from Maddie Fischer, Griffin Kaulbach, and Carolyn Catan.
It was a good preview of the course for when we return in a few weeks for the NIRCA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships.
Dashing Dukes Cross Country Invite
On October 7th, your fearless club runners made the scenic trek to Elkton, Virginia to return to the NIRCA club racing scene at the Dashing Dukes Invite hosted by JMU. A little traffic on 495 got us off to a late start but we made it more than 15 minutes before the start of this race.
After a Grammy worthy performance of the National Anthem by the JMU Club Alumni, the men’s race got off to a quick start. Leading the charge once again we had junior Sam Fields and sophomore Day Leone in 3rd and 4th overall. They were followed by our speedy freshmen duo of Abhi Srivatsa in 6th and Jared Kimiabakhsh in 7th. Sophomore Tony Boscolo came in 13th, then freshmen Harry Rathbun and Ryken Mak rounded out our top 7, putting us 5 points ahead of UVA’s team to get us the team win.
Andrew “I’m just here for the camping” Scalese made his 8k debut (and PR) this race. Other notable PRs include freshman Dylan Schmidt.
Unfortunately, JMU didn’t give out any cool prizes for individuals or the team title, which definitely loses this meet points in my book.
An hour later, the women’s race took off. Freshman Hannah Haber made her first ever cross country debut in 23:51 for 9th overall. Junior Lillian Hsu and senior Brooke Walz followed in 17th and 19th respectively. They were followed by Molly Kloss and Maggie Krieg. Fatima Younis and Mandy Callaghan completed our scoring 7, both PRing. Amanda Burke and Shreya Hebbar finished together, both PRing as well. Overall, there was a lot of great pack running in the women’s race.
Some of our runners also partook in the JMU 50/50 raffle at the end of the meet and no we didn’t win because of course JMU would win their own raffle. People with questionable intelligence who partook in this included Sohan, Lillian, Brian, and Evan.
NIRCA Mid-Atlantic Regionals
On October 20th, your fearless Club Runners made the trek to Allentown, Pennsylvania to stay at the luxurious Super 8 Wyndham. Despite the atrocious conditions, poor service, lack of promised continental breakfast, moldy bagels, and general poor sleeping experience, this did not stop our team from having an amazing day at Lehigh University.
Our women’s team kicked off the first race of the day in the 6k. Leading the charge were freshmen Ella Quigley and Hannah Haber, who both raced almost the entire race together, placing 21st and 22nd overall. Not too far behind them was Griffin Kaulbach in 27th. Brooke Walz and Lillian Hsu continued their pack running strategy, with Lillian leading on the uphills, and Brooke charging on the downhill sections. This time Brooke comfortably outkicked Lillian for them to place 47th and 55th. Rounding out our scoring 7 we had Sophie Russel and Madelyn Mielke, both making their UMD Cross Country debuts. Maggie Krieg, Fatima Younis, Shreya Hebbar, and Mandy Callaghan all continued their great seasons. Natalia Popielarz and Corinne Wasson returned from their Cross Country racing retirement to make their Club Running 6k debuts as well.
Overall, our women’s team finished 5th out of 17 teams, qualifying us for the Championship race at Nationals in Shelbyville, Indiana.
An hour later, our men’s team toed the line. Once again leading our men’s team was Sam Fields, placing 9th overall. After being aggressively slept on by the NIRCA coaches Mid-Atlantic Preview write up, Tony Boscolo broke 27 for the first time in an 8k to place 13th. Coming up right behind him were Abhi Srivatsa and Day Leone for 16th and 17th place overall. They were then followed by Ben Waterman in 53rd place to round out our scoring 5. Jared Kimibakhsh and Dylan Schmidt followed soon after in 61st and 62nd.
Overall, our Mens team finished 2nd out of 19 teams bringing home a nice Runner Up trophy!
NIRCA Cross Country Nationals
On November 10th, 36 Club Runners made the trek to Shelbyville, Indiana for the NIRCA Cross Country Championships. After a quality night’s sleep and breakfast courtesy of the Hampton Inn & Suites at Greensburg, our team dropped some excellent end of season cross country performances.
Open 6k
In the Open 6k, we had 6 6k PRs across the board. We had Cameron Nasseri leading the open race Terps for 10th place overall. He was followed by our President Sohan Ganatra, in his final cross country race of his career in 14th place. Christian Hendricks made his Club Running debut and 6k PR for 17th place. Following Christian was Adam Cullen in his final Club cross country race and Tim Caryl in his first Club Running 6k debut. Last but not least, with the Maryland Flag flying behind him, Frankie Andrews crossed the line of his final Club cross country race and first ever 6k for 30th place.
A special shout out goes to Bahlsdeep Inyamum of Minnesota Running Club, who got 2nd overall in the open 6k (I’ve also heard he goes by Rishi Gulati).
Junior/Senior/Grad men’s
Our Junior/Senior/Grad race had a small but still scoring squad toe the line about an hour later. Leading the squad was Jacob Bush in 43rd place. Next was Zach Kiedrowski in 89th, who outkicked former UMD Club Runner Alex Friedman of Rutgers University. He was then followed by Lucas LaBuff, Abel Bisrat, and John Davitz to round out a 5 person scoring team for 15th place as a team.
Championship women’s
Our women’s squad kicked off the first Championship race of the day. Freshman Hannah Haber led our women’s squad in 23:47 for 38th place overall. Following her was fellow Freshman Ella Quigley in 24:03 for 47th place. In her first and final NIRCA Cross Country Nationals, Senior Brooke Walz dropped a major PR to run 24:39. She was then followed by Junior Lillian Hsu and Sophomore Madelyn Mielke to round out the scoring 5 in 26:14 and 26:29. Rounding out our top 7 was Freshman Sophie Russel and Sophomore Maggie Krieg in 26:51 and 27:56. Overall, our women’s squad placed 12th out of 27 teams.
Championship men’s
For our second Championship race of the day, our men’s squad was led by Freshman Abhi Srivatsa in a big PR of 26:01.99 for 34th overall. Following behind him was Junior Sam Fields and Sophomore Day Leone in 26:21 and 26:26. They were then followed by Sophomore Tony Boscolo and Freshman Jared Kimiabakhsh in 26:57 and 27:03. After vomiting twice throughout the race, Freshman Dylan Schmidt still PR’d and finished in 28:02, followed closely by fellow Freshman Ben Waterman in 28:05. This secured our men’s team a 10th place finish out of 37 teams, tying us for our best finish in club history.
Freshmen/Sophomore men’s
For our last race of the day, our large frosh squad toed the line. Jonah Plotkin led the team in 48th place in 28:03. He was followed by Ryan Tyberg in 28:36, Logan Cyford in 28:55, Stacey Fitzsimmons in 31:02, and Ryan Bjornson in 31:33. Joseph Jackson and Ryken Mak rounded out the scoring 7. Last but not least, just like in the open 6k a few hours earlier, Evan Masiello finished with the Maryland Flag, as handed to him by Frankie Andrews. Our Frosh squad placed 13th overall in the Frosh team scoring.
Freshmen/Sophomore women’s
Despite no scoring squad for this race, our 2 freshmen both dropped major PR’s on the fast yet monotonous Shelbyville course. Shreya Hebbar ran 28:16 for 65th, followed closely by Mandy Callaghan with a 28:50 for 76th place.
Overall, it was a very successful Club Running Weekend in Indiana! Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make it all happen. That concludes our XC and Fall racing season! See you all for Track this Spring.
