NEWVILLE, Pa. - The Messiah Men's Cross Country team had an incredibly successful day at the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational, hosted at Big Spring High School at the site of the NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships later in the year. The Falcons mastered the challenging, hilly course and took advantage of cloudy weather conditions to turn in a slate of very quick times for the course. As the name implies, the meet offered two different racing distances, with the normal 8K distance being the "long" race and the quicker 4K race being the "short" race. The Falcons took both the individual and team wins in the 8K race, finishing with a score of 19 points in a race where just the top three runners were scored. The Falcons finished just ahead of Misericordia (second place, 23 points) thanks to putting each of their top three just ahead of the competition. The Falcons also finished in fifth place as a team in the shorter 4K race with 49 points, finishing behind several teams who opted to run all of their runners in the shorter race only. In totality, the Falcons also took the overall team win after the scores from both the longer 8K and shorter 4K races were added together, registering a total of 68 points and slipping past Dickinson, who finished in second overall with a total of 88 points. This marks the Falcons' second team win in a row as well as the second time that the Falcons have finished ahead of conference rival Misericordia, indicating great things to come in the postseason.
The Falcons will return to action after a short turnaround by competing at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University on Friday, October 3. Only the top 10 Falcons on each team will toe the line at the very competitive invitational, which will also see many of the best Division I schools in the nation in attendance across a number of various races. The entire team will return to action together in three weeks time at Rowan University on October 18th.Â
Race Action
In the long 8K race, which opened the day,
Louka Fetter earned the overall win, outleaning the competition at the line to win by less than a tenth of a second. Fetter ran his fastest time on the course in three tries with a 26:01.0 clocking, just surpassing his times from both Pre-Nationals and Nationals at the same location two years ago. Fetter went out quickly with a 5:06 first mile before falling off the leaders in the hilly middle section of the race but managed to rally from sixth to first in the final kilometer of the race thanks to a thrilling sprint finish.Â
Kaleb Kabakjian ran an excellent race to finish in seventh place overall with a time of 26:24.7, finishing as the second Falcon. Kabakjian ran in a remarkably patient way, content to float through the first mile in 29th place with a 5:27 opening split. Kabakjian maintained roughly the same gap behind Fetter after the first mile for the remainder of the race, drawing closer with a quick surge during the fourth mile before the gap widened once more during the final mile. Kabakjian closed very well in the latter stages of the race, achieving a comfortable gap behind to eighth to turn in an excellent finishing time.
Sean Baxter continued his remarkable improvements during his final season of cross country by finishing as the third Falcon, notching a time under 27 minutes with a 26:56.0 clocking. Baxter finished in 11th place overall, opening up his race with Kabakjian and following him more closely through the rest of the race than any of his other teammates.
John Condon finished as the fourth Falcon just behind, mounting a very strong finish over the last mile despite losing some ground in the middle of the race to finish just a few seconds adrift of Baxter. Condon finished with a time of 27:00.1 to place 14th overall, only a few seconds off his performance at the same course two years ago.
Samuel Hennett once again finished in the top five for the Falcons, running an excellent time of 27:09.5 to place 15th overall. Hennett spent much of his race trailing Baxter by only a few seconds before trailing his senior teammate's strong final miles, which Hennett followed closely to round out an incredible top five for the Falcons.
Kyle Costello was the Falcons' sixth man for the second race in a row, surpassing his previous best on the course from four years ago by two seconds with a 27:21.2 finishing time. Costello began his first two miles with Baxter, Condon, and Hennett before a gap developed during the third mile, but Costello still moved up very well throughout the race to finish in 17th place overall. One place behind was
Zeke Colyer, who finished as the seventh Falcon with a time of 27:31.3, an 18 second improvement on his time from the same course two years ago. Colyer moved up extremely well throughout the race, beginning his race with a large number of Falcons and emerging as the best of the group after a furious charge in the final three kilometers, which saw him pass 10 competitors en route to an 18th place finish.
Nathaniel Coggins repeated his finish from last week's race as the eighth Falcon with a time of 27:43.7, turning in the second-fastest two miles of the group aside from Colyer to move up very well in the latter portion of the race. Coggins registered a remarkable improvement of 65 seconds over his time on the same course two years ago, showcasing his strong gains during the last two seasons.
Josiah Carnwath, who pushed the pace for his group of Falcons in the middle miles of the hills, finished in ninth amongst his teammates with a time of 27:49.9. Carnwath ran a stellar second and third mile after beginning his race with a 5:31 first split with Colyer, Coggins,
Jackson Kay,
Tyler Billet, and
Jacob Sahlstrom, and followed Coggins' surge to the finish closely after being overtaken in the last mile. Incredibly, Carnwath's time stands as a personal best by 15 seconds, a remarkable feat on such a difficult course that indicates his ability to run much faster on flatter ground.
Jackson Kay rounded out the Falcons' top 10, running with Colyer and Coggins for the first three miles before closing with the same splits as Carnwath to clock a time of 27:57.0.Â
Sophomore
Micah Kao was next up for the Falcons, running a very strong second half of his race to finish with a stellar new personal best time of 28:12.7, becoming one of a few runners to eclipse their time from last week by a significant margin.
Ryan Klemick did the same, finishing next for the Falcons with a time of 28:31.1 that stands as a 23-second improvement on last week's performance.
Tyler Billet was the next Falcon across the line with a time of 28:37.0, followed by
Nathan Seibert, who tracked closely behind Klemick for much of the race before crossing the line with a time of 29:09.7.
Jacob Sahlstrom was the last Falcon under 30 minutes, running a time of 29:54.2, with
Matthew Rush just outside in a time of 30:00.4.
Jared Walker (30:56.6) and
Gavin Coggins (32:58.2) also ran well for the Falcons, while
Kaiden Braught also started the race for the Falcons.
In the shorter 4K race,
Evan Sarkett finished as the top Falcon amongst six other teammates, registering a time of 13:12.1. In part thanks to the downhill nature of the course's final kilometer, Sarkett finished with a blazing last split of 3:02, allowing him to gain a bit of separation on teammate
Larsen Cooper, who finished closely behind with a time of 13:20.8. Sarkett finished in 24th place overall, while Cooper closed with a 3:10 final kilometer to place 26th. Sam Meyer had a fantastic race to finish close behind his teammates with a 13:28.0 clocking, while
Nathan Steen and
Luke Acton finished very close together with respective times of 13:51.3 and 13:52.8.
Samuel Mateer rounded out the Falcons' efforts with a time of 14:22.3.
Up Next
The Falcons will return to action after a short turnaround by competing at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University on Friday, October 3. Only the top 10 Falcons on each team will toe the line at the very competitive invitational, which will also see many of the best Division I schools in the nation in attendance across a number of various races. The entire team will return to action together in three weeks time at Rowan University on October 18th.Â
