The American University men’s and women’s cross-country teams competed at the Paul Short Run in Lehigh, Pennsylvania on Sept. 30.
The men’s team was 37th out of 43 teams in the 8k Gold Race, while the women’s team was 23rd out of 43 teams in the 6k Brown Race.
In the women’s race, seniors June Mwaniki and Callia Cordasco were the first and second Eagles to cross the finish line, finishing 37th and 132nd, respectively. Mwaniki’s team-leading performance was the 11th of her career and her 9th in a row.
Cordasco, who hadn’t raced since the team’s first meet on Sept. 2, said that she knew there were things to work on as far as her individual performance goes, but that she was proud of the way her teammates raced and motivated each other.
“For a lot of our freshmen, it was their first big, high-profile college meet,” Cordasco said. “I think they handled the stress amazingly. With about 1k left in the race, I felt [freshman Amy O’Connell] come up behind me and hit my back and say, ‘Let’s go, Callia.’ That really brought me back to life.”
Head coach Sean Graham was happy with the team’s performance as well, and emphasized their race execution as a strong point.
“They got off the line very well,” Graham said. “Particularly at Paul Short, that’s necessary. There’s 400 people in the race; it’s hard to maneuver a pack of that size if you’re not in the right spot.”
Some athletes didn’t find themselves in this “right spot” when the race began, as Graham noted, but the slow starters moved up through the race and caught up with the lead pack, in what Graham called an “accordion effect.”
Some Eagles ran in the Women’s Open 6k Race. Graham was especially impressed with sophomore Kate Riley’s performance.
“Kate was coming off sickness,” Graham said. “Our intent for her race was to be conservative with where she was, but she ran very smart and very well.”
Riley said she surprised herself with her performance.“I think that was the most relaxed I’ve ever been going into a race,” Riley said. “I wasn’t expecting [to race well] having not felt great the night before… [but] I felt good at 4k, and I was like, ‘I might as well go for it.’”
Meanwhile, the men’s team did not perform as well as they hoped to, finishing 37th out of 43 teams in the 8k Gold Race. Graham attributed their poor performance to an array of factors.
“I don’t think there was one particular thing that screwed us up,” Graham said. “It was just a lot of little, ticky-tack stuff that wasn’t quite great, and that adds up quickly, especially in a race like [this one].”
One of these things was the team’s start. Unlike the women’s team, the men started slowly and found themselves trapped in a sea of nearly 400 runners, which hampered their ability to move up throughout the race.
“We didn’t get off the line well,” Graham said. “When we realized that, there wasn’t a solution. It was, ‘Here I am, and I’ll try to make my way through.’ You just can’t do that at Paul Short.”
Graham also noted that the muddy terrain played a role in the team’s performance — albeit a small one. Lehigh’s flat course typically allows runners to produce fast times, and heading into the season, Graham said his athletes expected this race to be the “fast one” of the season. When they saw the course, though, they realized that it wouldn’t be as fast as they thought, something that affected them mentally.
Still, there were a few bright spots from the race. Sophomore Kaden Kluth led the Eagles in 139th place with a time of 25:17 — his second team-leading performance in a row. Graham had high praise for Kluth and his competitive nature.
“Kaden’s got an outlook … that’s wise beyond his years,” Graham said. “He has goals on what he wants to accomplish, and how he wants to do them, and he is steadfast with them. It usually takes an athlete a couple of years to learn that. He’s got it.”
Sophomore Cooper Michaud also had an impressive race, earning a personal best time of 25:50.
With Paul Short in the books, the Eagles finished with their regular season; their first championship meet, the IC4A Championships, takes place on Friday, Oct. 13 in Yonkers, New York.
Graham said he is “not concerned” about either of his teams heading into the postseason; rather, the next few weeks will be about building on their progress and preparing to execute well when it counts.
“I think we’re lined up well to [execute at the championship meets],” Graham said. “For the men, it’s along the lines of controlling the things we can control. For the women, it’s about taking the next step.”
This article was edited by Penelope Jennings, Delaney Hoke and Abigail Pritchard. Copy editing done by Isabelle Kravis and Olivia Citarella.
