The Daily
Free Press - Sports
Issue:
Women win seventh
straight title; Diekfoss sets conference record
By Mike Lipka
It is safe to say that the Boston University women’s cross country program is a
dynasty after the Terriers won their seventh straight America East championship
at Franklin Park on Saturday.
The win did not come as
easily as it has in past years, however. This year’s version is a younger and
less experienced group that was not expected to win. The State University of
New York at Stony Brook had been favored in the nine-team field, but the BU
women edged them out, 36-43.
“This has been a tough
season, so we’re very excited,” said senior captain Bolpar
Vinh. “We were hoping to win, but we didn’t want to
be overconfident. Our team was really young and quite inexperienced.”
“They really pulled an
upset,” said BU Coach
That front group
consisted of senior captain Sherida Bird, sophomore
Dina Mijuskovic, and freshman Jessica Iannacci. Bird and Mijuskovic
took fourth and fifth place, respectively, both crossing the line at
“They grouped up really
well to the front of the pack,” Lehane said.
“We all just tried to run
together, to catch each other the whole race,” Vinh
said. “And it worked.”
Jenny Payne of Stony
Brook won the race, finishing in
Impressive performances
from graduate student Charlotte Coffey and Vinh were
also important to beating Stony Brook on Saturday. Coffey finished 10th at
“Coffey ran a very aggressive
race. In some ways she was the key to our win,” Lehane said. “Bolpar Vinh did a fabulous job.”
The BU women should feel
good going into the NCAA Regionals on Nov. 16. This weekend’s
latest trophy is just another testament to the dominance of Lehane’s
program.
“I really think we earned
this win this year, especially this year,” Vinh said.
“This was a sweet victory.”
Meanwhile, junior Jochen Dieckfoss continued a
streak of his own for the Terrier men as he won his third straight individual
America East title on Saturday. Dieckfoss was the
highlight of a disappointing day for the men, as they tied for second in a nine
team field they were hoping to win.
“This was my goal to win
this race, otherwise I would be pretty disappointed,” Dieckfoss
said. “Mentally it was a very tough race.”
“The highlight of the day
was Jochen winning,” Lehane said. “That was his best
race, I feel, that he has run at the university.”
Dieckfoss ran step for step for most of the
race with
Overall, however, it was
not a strong day for the BU men.
“We could have run better
and just didn’t run our best today. It was kind of disappointing,” said senior
captain Jordan Jones. “We knew what [
“I think they struggled
on the day, by and large,” Lehane said. “There’s not much more to say about
that, it was a tough day for us.”
Senior Rob Wong followed Dieckfoss, finishing 10th with a time of 25:14. Senior Paul
Morrice was next (12th, 25:27), followed by Jones (22nd,
25:54). Sophomore Dan Coval closed out the scoring,
crossing the line 24th at 26:09.
“I couldn’t show up and
run a tough race today like I wanted to,” Jones said.
He seemed to speak for
the team, as the Terriers could not accomplish what they hoped on Saturday, a
day which held a wide range of emotions for