The men’s and women’s cross country teams have been front runners in the Little East Conference all season long, and when the time came to the championship race, the Owls were there to win.
The women came in first out of 15 teams competing and earned the team’s fifteenth title in a row. For the women, the secret to success is simple.
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Samantha Goldsmith, a junior on the team, explained.
“The girls on our team are extremely hard-working and committed. We know what our coaches expect us to do, and we know the expectations we should hold for ourselves. We all work toward the same goals as a team and we know that if we work together and support each other, it will only make our team stronger,” Goldsmith stated.
Goldsmith indeed worked very hard. Goldsmith is the only member of the men’s and women’s team to be moving forward to the NCAA Championship. Goldsmith finished the LEC Alliance race with a time of 18:54.33. However, seven of the top ten were also KSC students.
Kait Wheeler finished third with a time of 19:16.94, Lindsay Szuch in fifth with a time of 19:33.73 and Lauren Markoe in sixth in 19:52.60. Also for the team, Kaley Mientkiewicz crossed the finish with a time of 19:53.22, for seventh place, Rachel Klaski finished in ninth place with a time of 19:58.22 and lastly, Carli Davis in tenth with a time of 20:14.19.
Along with top-ten finishes, Goldsmith, Wheeler, Szuch, Markoe and Mientkiewicz earned accolades like All-LEC and All-Alliance and Klaski and Davis were also named All-Alliance.
“An LEC win is very important for our team. We didn’t want to break our streak as a women’s team. Winning LECs helps everyone to gain a little more confidence at a point in the season when confidence is crucial. Since LECs is our first post-season meet, we are all often starting to feel tired. But winning LECs helps us all to remember that we are a strong team and that we are perfectly capable of competing with some of the best teams in the conference and region,” Goldsmith stated.
A benefit to the LEC race is that it gives the runners a first look at the regionals’ course and gives the team a chance to get comfortable with the course that they competed at for regional’s.
“LEC’s was a good day. A good day to be out on the regional course prior to regionals. The women had a solid day overall. We knew we would be dominant the whole day and there would be great pack running,” Acting Head Coach Sarah Titus said.
Titus continued, “The team is looking to peak at regionals cause that’s where it matters. I told them to get used to working together, running together. You have nothing to lose — go for it and trust what you got. Get out from the start.”
Like the women’s team, the men also placed first at the LEC Alliance race.
The top three performers included Hayden Patterson, who finished in third place with a time of 26:39.74 and picked up All-Little East Conference honors for the second year in a row. Next was for the Owls was Ryan Brady, who finished fourth place with a time of 26:49.17. Brady also earned All-LEC honors for the second year in a row. In fifth place was Philip Parent with a time of 26:49.91, becoming an All-LEC performer for the first time.
“Being a freshman, it felt great to be able to run that well in the conference. But I’d also like to think that this is just the beginning and I’m off to a pretty good start,” freshman Parent stated.
Coach Titus added that both teams, “without question, everyone ran the best they could on that day, so were really proud of them.”
Although the team is relatively young, the women’s team will be graduating its only senior, Kaley Mientkiewicz.
“Kaley Mientkiewicz has been a phenomenal leader all season. She’s the one who rounds up the huddle, she’s the one to take charge and lead by example. She will be missed next year. And I think it was really important and positive for the team to have her because they know what kind of leadership they’ll be able to fall into. So, looking to see who would fill in that leadership role … I couldn’t tell you. It’s something that just happens naturally,” Titus said.
Both teams had a strong finish at the regional race, which happened on Nov. 15. The women finished seventh out of 57 and the men finished eleventh out of 54.
Kendall Pope can be contacted at kpope@keene-equinox.com
