Last weekend, the Emory men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia for the NCAA Division III South/Southwest Regional Championships. The Eagles earned first place in each event.
In addition to a pair of team titles, Emory accounted for both individual championships thanks to the senior duo of Lukas Mees and Elise Viox.
“I can’t remember the last time we won both the team and the individual titles,” Head Coach John Curtin said. “It was fun for that to happen, and it made for a great weekend.”
The men’s team finished first out of the 30 teams competing, with a score of 86 points. Christopher Newport University (Va.) finished second with 96 points. Senior Lukas Mees beat 203 competitors in the 8K race with a time of 25:46.
“Qualifiers are tricky in cross country because you need to find the balance between putting in enough effort to get to the next meet, but you still need to save something so you have enough gas in the tank for the next week on the big stage,” Mees said. “It was nice to bring an individual regional championship back to Emory, especially when Elise Viox was able to do it on the women’s side.”
Curtin praised Mees’ performance, as well as the rest of the men’s team.
“Lukas was dominant,” Curtin said. “He ran exactly how we asked. He tried not to over-exert himself with nationals a week away, and he was outstanding.”
The “pack” described by Curtin was lead by junior Michael Sisario, who ran a 26:55. Sisario’s time was good enough for 19th place. The final three scoring runners for the men’s team were Grant Murphy, Austin Hunt and Max Brown, who ran times of 27:05.2, 27.05.7, and 27:06.1.
“The rest of our guys ran together as a group,” Curtin said. “They began a little far back, but kept working up and did a good enough job to advance to nationals.”
The women’s team finished first out of 27 teams with 35 points, well ahead of Rhodes College (Tenn.) with 106 points and Washington and Lee University (Va.) with 121 points.
Viox finished the 6K women’s course first out of 200 competitors and led the way to a dominant team performance. Her time of 22:05 was a personal best.
“I knew coming into the meet that I was going to have to take the lead early in the race if I wanted any chance at the title,” Viox said. “A little less than two kilometers in, I made my move, committed to it, and saw it through.”
Curtin said that the women’s team entered the meet aiming to have all runners finish in the top 21. The team went above and beyond their goal and had all seven runners finish in the top 19.
Sophomore Aileen Rivell finished fourth overall with a 22:32, edging out teammate sophomore Gabrielle Stravach, who ran a 22:34.3. junior Sophie Cemaj came in 10th with 22:50.9 that tied her personal best. College freshman Clare Ubersax ran 23:02.8, which was the 15th fastest in the field. Junior Mia Eisenhandler and sophomore Hanna Saadegh-Vaziri joined their teammates in the top 20 with times of 23:03 and 23:09, respectively.
“Sophie Cemaj hadn’t scored for us all year and this course really lent itself to her talents,” Curtin said. “She’s a good hill runner, and she took advantage of it. Her race was a real highlight on the women’s side.”
Both Mees and Viox said that most of the preparation for this meet has occurred throughout the season and that they are fit and ready. Curtin expressed his excitement for the high level of competition in the national meet.
“The course in Virginia was really rugged, and the kids had to run hard. We’re going to help bring them back down, get them recovered and see what we can do in nationals.”
The Eagles will run in the NCAA D-III Championships in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this weekend on Saturday, Nov. 21.
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