DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — Charlie Larsen's run to victory at the 2010 Middle Atlantic Conference Men's Cross Country Championships was just the beginning of the fun for the Blue Jays on Saturday. The 16th-ranked Elizabethtown cross country team placed five runners in the top-six as it easily claimed its 11th MAC title in program history.
Larsen completed the 8,000-meter race, which was hosted by Delaware Valley, in 25:38.38. He bested teammate Eric Reichert by just three-tenths of a second. Reichert's runner-up finish was his second in as many years.
Messiah was able to sneak Tyler Newhook in to third place, but the rest of the leaderboard belonged to the Blue Jays.
Colby Miller (25:49.91), Aaron Focht (25:56.50), Russell Speiden (26:03.75) and Steve Welsh (26:05.46) took spots four through seven to round out Elizabethtown's scoring five. The Blue Jays finished with 18 points, while Widener was a distant second at 84 points.
Even the Jays that didn't factor into the team scoring had outstanding outings at the conference meet. Chris Heisey was ninth with a 26:14.08 and Rich Greco ran to a tenth place finishat a 26:17.43.
In all, Elizabethtown ran 12 men and all finished in the top-46 of the 133 man field.
E-town also swept the awards hardware, as Larsen earned MAC Runner of the Year honors, Welsh took MAC Rookie of the Year, and coach Chris Straub was named MAC Coach of the Year for the ninth time.
With the team championship, the Blue Jays have now taken ten of the last 12 MAC titles.
DeSales, Messiah and Misericordia rounded out the top-five teams.
Coach Chris Straub's Reflections on the meet:
Today was a perfect day for the men's and women's teams. The weather was crisp, the course consisted of very rough footing and terrain, and there was a lot of harriers out there giving it their best effort. It was cross country at its best.
Coach Falk, Tom "Drac" Williams, and I are just so honored and blessed to work with such an outstanding group of student-athletes. The support out there today was amazing. We had a lot of family, alumni, as well as, sprinters, jumpers, and throwers from the track & field team. We just had a blast today! Both teams were lifted up by the myriad of displays of school spirit. We wanted to get after it in preparation for regionals, and hopefully, nationals in two and three weeks, respectively.
On the men's side, the 2002 squad is considered one of, if not, our best-ever squad in the 55-year history of Elizabethtown College men's cross country. They scored 21 points at the MAC meet, went on to win our only Mideast Regional title over perennial powerhouse Haverford College, and finish 15th at NCAAs. The men wanted to beat that 21 point total set by the 2002 squad. We accomplished that today with 18 points. That 2002 squad also had 8 All-MAC runners (top 20). Matt Rever ran himself up into 19th place to again set a new standard: nine All-MAC runners in the same race! Matt was the Maryland 4A State Champion in the 1600m last spring and is getting better and better with the 8k college cross country distance with each meet this year.
Charlie [Larsen] and Eric [Reichert] just ran together. I don't think they knew who to give the title to! Our only men's champions have been Dave Berdan in 2001 and Dustin Scott in 2002. Either could have won today, but Eric was gracious and let Charlie have his moment in the sun. Eric was an All-American (23rd @ NCAAs) last year and Charlie has come on so strong this season. It's just great to see that kind of thoughtfulness and selflessness. These are great men in addition to great athletes. Colby [Miller], Aaron [Focht], and Russ [Speiden] have just been coming on stronger and stronger with each passing week. Aaron and Russ especially have really raised their game of late. From Charlie to Russ we had a :25 1-5 spread today (25:38-26:03). That's a real joy for any cross country coach, especially when your front-runners are All-American caliber guys!
We had great depth today too with the 2009 AA Pennsylvania State Champion in Cross Country, Stephen Welsh, running #6 for us and finishing in 7th place. Stephen just flat-out loves to compete. Like a lot of his teammates, it seems that the bigger the situation, the more he raises his game. Senior captains Chris Heisey and Rich Greco came in 9th and 10th and had excellent races of their own. Heisey missed three weeks in the middle of the season with a calf strain, but it improving daily. Rich will be back next year in cross country and brings such a great attitude and energy to practice and competitions. Those two lived and trained in Vermont all summer. They have made real sacrifices to push our program to be one of the best small college programs in the country. It's hard to believe a guy who finished in the top 10 at MACs is going to have to sit at regionals, but we can only run seven at regionals and nationals. That's the situation at hand as we turn our attention to regionals and nationals.
Senior Adam Derkacz concluded his senior cross country career with a 46th place finish and a sub-28 minute race on a very difficult course. He is really the heartbeat of this year's squad. His leadership, spirit, and example give the guys a tremendous amount of pride in all they do. I really believe these types of team efforts are not possible without a leader like Adam on your team.
It was a special day for both teams and a great way to kick off the three-week championship season. We'll enjoy it today and tomorrow at practice, then we turn our attention to continuing to achieve our team and individual goals for 2010.