Characterized by cold, muddy conditions, the cross-country UAA Championships resulted in a second-place tie for the men and a fifth-place finish for the women.

“I think the guys should feel good about their second-place tie,” Head Coach John Curtin said. “The women are disappointed and should be. It was their poorest performance of the year, and it came at an unfortunate time.”

The meet, hosted by Case Western Reserve University at Squire Valleevue Farm in Cleveland Ohio, was held on Halloween and included an 8K run for the men and a 6K for the women. Harsh conditions challenged the runners, as it had rained the day and night before.

“The course was very, very sloppy and muddy, and it was cold, so it was tough conditions,” Curtin said. “Footing was very tenuous, so I think it affected the times — none of the times were very good.”

Emory’s men’s team finished in a tie with Carnegie Mellon for second place, following New York University’s first-place finish.

Senior Charlie Meade pulled the best time for the Emory men, finishing the race in 26 minutes, 20.04 seconds for a third-place finish, followed closely by senior Paul Winterhalter’s fourth-place finish of 26:23.36.

“Probably the outstanding race of the weekend was Paul Winterhalter,” Curtin said. “That was far-and-away his best performance of the year. He was out with the leaders and pushed the pace early on very confidently.”

Winterhalter was sick going into the race last year and improved his race significantly this year.

“Essentially I just got out front in the pack and just held on the whole meet, and ended up getting fourth,” he said. “I was pretty excited about that.”

Senior Tommy Fyffe earned eighth place with a time of 26:36.67. Curtin said senior Barri Levinson, who finished 28th with a 27:22.21 run, was an important factor in the team’s second-place finish.

“A real clutch performance had to be Barri Levinson,” Curtin said. “Barri struggled early in the season, but he’s really come along. He stepped up and did a really good job for us.”

The women placed fifth in the championship, which was won by Wash. U. Junior Natalie Fenn earned the best finish at 11th place with a 24:16.92 run and qualified for the All-UAA second team.

“She’s really turned her career around,” Curtin said. “A year ago, she was 51st in this meet and last Saturday she was 11th.”

The next Emory finish was College sophomore Tess Gallegos, who came in 22nd with a time of 24:31.89, and College senior Rebecca Flink earned 27th for her 24:41.67 time.

Curtin said the women had a disappointing weekend in part because typical high performers College junior Jenny Feinberg and College sophomore Sara Gelb did not score.

“We went in with very high expectations, and I think we just didn’t execute on race day,” Curtin said. “We let the conditions get to us. We have some kids that have a hard time negotiating muddy courses, and it really hurt us.”

Freshmen Calley Edwards, Melanie Frank and Olivia D’Angelo placed 40th, 43rd and 48th, respectively.

"Our freshmen runners came through for us in a big way," Curtin said. "For this first UAA and not really knowing what to expect, they did a good job."

Curtin said the women need to put this meet behind them and focus on the upcoming NCAA regionals, where both the men and women will be looking to finish with national qualifying times.

"I think the lesson that we all learned from this race is that we have to really show up and get competitive and race hard at regionals if we want to make it to nationals," Fenn said. "We are focusing now on bringing the team back together as a whole and getting mentally tougher and racing together as a team."

The next challenge for Emory is the NCAA South/Southeast Regionals on Nov. 14, in Greensboro, N.C.

— Contact Christina White.