By Jack McLoone
You cannot get much more successful than sweeping two meets like Fordham Cross Country did on Friday and Saturday. First was the Metropolitan Championships at Van Cortlandt Park on Friday, where the men and women both won for the first time in program history. On Saturday, both sides also swept the SJC Invite in Patchogue, NY, which was hosted by St. Joseph’s College.
“It was exciting since both teams knew there was a good shot we could win, so we had our expectations met,” said junior Ryan Kutch of the Met Championships.
The men’s side in the Met Championships was, as usual, led by Kutch, who finished first in the five-mile race in 25:24. The next closest finisher came in over half a minute slower. He did so in front of the last two winners of the meet, current graduate assistant coach Thomas Slattery, who graduated last year, and graduate student runner Brian Cook, who finished in first in 2016. A Ram has actually won the last five Met Championships, with Jonathan Annelli winning in 2015 and Quincy O’Connor in 2014.
In his typical humble manner, Kutch minimized his accomplishments in favor of lifting up the team.
“I was really excited to help the team out the best I could,” he said. “My teammates helped a lot to build my confidence for the meet.”
His teammates also helped the men’s team win the meet, with Fordham dominating and winning by almost 40 points. All of Fordham’s scorers (their top five finishers) came in the top 20. Freshman Brandon Hall came in behind Kutch in third (26:12), and former Met Championship winner Cook finished fourth (26:20). Junior Sean Sullivan placed ninth and fellow junior Patrick Donahue finished 14th (the posted race times do not have times for any runner for the men after the eighth-place finisher). Hall and Sullivan’s times were personal bests, according to Kutch.
Also crossing the finish line for Fordham were junior Matthew Roma (30th) and sophomore William Whelan (34th).
Kutch also gave some credit to longtime head coach Tom Dewey: “We have been having some really strong workouts and have run the course a lot in practice which helped especially on the hills,” he said. “Coach has also had us do some really smart workouts at Van Cortlandt as well.”
The women’s side clinched the historic weekend in a similarly dominant fashion, defeating the second place team, Manhattan, by over 30 points. Of the Rams’ five scorers, the lowest finisher was junior Sydney Snow, in ninth.
The top finisher for the Rams was senior Angelina Grebe, who secured second with a 18:20 finish. Senior Abigail Taylor also finished in the top five, coming in fifth with a time of 18:47.9. Rounding out the Rams’ top finishers were junior Katarzyna Krzyzanow (sixth, 18:55), senior Laurel Fisher (seventh, 19:07.5) and Snow (ninth, 19:10.1).
Also finishing towards the top for Fordham, but not scoring, were senior Kate McCormack (11th, 19:19.4), senior Blake Elwood (12th, 19:24.1), freshman Bridget Alex (15th, 19:33.3), freshman Sarah Daniels (16th, 19:35.5) and sophomore Germaine Harbaugh (19th, 19:47).
“A great team performance is always extremely exciting as it demonstrates to all of us the potential that we have for the upcoming postseason especially since Mets was our first championship meet,” said Grebe.
However, the Rams were not done for the weekend. The second half of the team went out to the St. Joseph’s College Invitational, where they once again cleaned up, though this time against more competitors.
The women’s side ran first, with the Rams narrowly topping the United States Merchant Marines Academy by just two points. Both the Rams and the USMMA had three top 15 finishers, but Fordham swept spots 16 through 18 (though only 16 and 17 scored) to take the narrow win.
The Rams top finisher was senior Aidan Moroz, who came in fourth with a time of 20:12.2. She was followed by sophomore Dana Beggins, who came in ninth with a 20:49.1 finish. Elwood, racing for the second time in two days, had another strong finish, coming in 15th with a 21:09.1 finish.
Rounding out Fordham’s scorers were senior Julia Wiseman (16th, 21:14) and senior Kieran Hanrahan (17th, 21:15.9). 18th and just outside of scoring was sophomore Bridget White, who finished with a time of 21:17.5.
On the men’s side, the Rams also beat USMMA, but by a larger margin, 45 points for Fordham to USMMA’s 70.
The Rams took spots five through seven, with strong finishes by sophomore Patrick Norako (28:19.2), sophomore Kieran Press-Reynolds (28:28.4) and freshman Jack O’Connell (28:29.1). The last two Fordham scorers were sophomore Thomas Fitzpatrick (15th, 28:51.9) and freshman Patrick Tuohy (21st, 29:04.7).
The Rams will get a week to revel in their successful weekend, though both Kutch and Grebe emphasized their success will only serve as motivation for the final part of the season. They will spend this week off from competition in preparation for the Atlantic 10 Championship on Oct. 27 at Green Pole Park in Virginia.
