Men

This weekend, the Carnegie Mellon men?s cross country team competed at the UAA championships in Rochester, New York. Carnegie Mellon placed third out of the eight schools with a total score of 80 points, losing to Washington University, which scored 60, and the University of Chicago, which had a score of 59. Carnegie Mellon had four runners place in the top 25: Nick End in fourth, Dana Irrer in eighth, Aaron Beaber in 20th (with a personal record of 27:17), and Geoff Misek in 22nd.
The race was 8 kilometers long and had a total of 75 runners competing. The course was ?flat for the most part, but extremely muddy and soft,? according to Misek, making it especially hard to run, although the team had had prior racing experience on that course.
?It was difficult to run in a pack because of the mud and all the sharp turns. We weren?t able to run the way we planned because of the mud and weather and we were a little disappointed with our team race. We were constantly getting spiked by other runners because the lead pack was so big. The race thinned out in the fourth mile and Dana and I pushed to stay up front,? said End, who finished fourth.
Although the men?s team felt disappointed with its race results, they had a disadvantage this year running without one of their top runners, Matt Meurer, who is out due to an injury. The cross country team?s will next compete at the Regional Championship at Allegheny. ?As a whole, the team didn?t really run as well as we expected it to, but we?re just putting that behind us and focusing on regionals now,? said Misek. The team is currently ranked second in the region, and if they are able to maintain this ranking and place in the top two at Allegheny in two weeks, they will once again be able to compete in the National Championship at Eau Claire, Wisc.