NCAAs conclude big year for cross country teams
The Bates cross country teams pose for a group photo on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012, the day before running in the NCAA Division III Championships. Photo by Michael Bradley/Bates College.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Bates College was represented for the first time in school history by both its men’s and women’s cross country teams at the NCAA Championships on Saturday, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected that both teams would do Bobcat Nation proud.
The Bates women mounted a tremendously balanced team effort to finish 19th (full story), just a week after entering the national top 20 rankings for the first time. The race culminated the team’s leapfrog from 11th place at the 2011 NCAA New England Regionals all the way up to fourth at this season’s regionals, and its first trip to nationals since 1997. Led by captain Alicia Fannon ’13, Bates had its fifth and final point-scoring runner, Mira Carey-Hatch ’14, cross the finish line ahead of any other New England team’s fifth runner. Bates’ sixth runner, Elena Jay ’15, ran faster than all but three teams’ in the country.
The Bates men’s team raced first on Saturday (full story) and met their ambitious goal of doing even better than last year’s seventh-place national showing. A week after the 12th-ranked Bobcats took third place at NCAA New England Regionals, Bates placed sixth as a team, matching its best national finish with the 1977 team. Tully Hannan ’14 earned his second All-America honor in cross country with a stunning fifth-place individual performance, followed on the Bobcats by classmates Mike Martin ’14 and Noah Graboys ’14.
Bates is one of seven schools with both its men’s and women’s cross country teams to finish among the top 20 nationally, along with Johns Hopkins, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Williams, Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Middlebury, Haverford and Calvin.