The Daily Free Press - Sports

Issue: 09/30/03

Runners hit bumps in the Bronx

By Brian Maurer

In Boston, all talk is focused on the possible matchup between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Bostonians feel that their Red Sox can finally “reverse the curse” that has haunted them since 1918.

But the Boston University cross-country team attempted to break free from a Bronx curse of their own last Saturday when it competed in the Iona Meet of Champions at Van Cortlandt Park. In the end, the New York mystique held them in check yet again.

“We seem to have troubles in New York,” said senior co-captain Jordan Jones. “It’s good to be back in Boston.”

On a very humid day in New York City, both the men’s and women’s teams had difficulty with the grueling course. The eight- and six-kilometer courses for the men and women, respectively, tested each runner’s endurance with a series of hills and numerous uneven running surfaces.

While all of the BU runners finished the race, the team as a whole did not do as well as it had expected, several BU runners said.

“We didn’t have a great day,” said sophomore captain Jessica Iannacci. “We didn’t run aggressively — we could have done better.”

Coach Bruce Lehane agreed with his captain.

“It was a stronger performance, but we still need certain people to step it up,” he said. “We’re heading in the right direction, but we’re still weak in a few areas.”

The men finished ninth out of 19 teams, while the women ended up 13th out of 18 teams.

“It was disappointing,” Iannacci said. “We didn’t have a terrible day, but it wasn’t our best day either.”

Princeton University took control of the contest on the men’s side, winning by almost 100 points over second place Yale University. Event host Iona College won the women’s competition.

Individually, however, Terrier runners finished in the middle of the pack against some of the nation’s elite teams.

“It was all right,” Jones said. “Not great, but not bad either — just average.”

On the men’s side, senior co-captain Jochen Dieckfoss finished in 20th place in the 158-runner field, with a time of 26:07.9. Jones finished a couple of strides behind, in 31st place with a time of 26:26.9. Junior Dan Coval finished 60th, followed by graduate student Carl Kinney (72nd).

“There was a bit of improvement from last week,” Jones said. “I think there were signs of what we can do.”

Iannacci led the BU women, finishing 30th of 148 runners with a time of 22:59.1. The Terriers were helped out by their freshmen finishers, among them Abbey Sadowski, who finished 50th (23:23.5). Also, freshman Marissa Ryan followed right on Sadowski’s tail, finishing 53rd (23:26.0).

“The freshmen are the biggest unknown card,” Lehane said. “It’s hard to predict what they’ll do. They can be erratic, but they did quite well in this meet.”

The meet was useful in comparing BU to other America East Conference rivals.

“This type of meet gives you a real read of where you are,” Lehane said. “Even for the girls who didn’t face conference teams, it shows which areas we need to work on.”

Based on this meet, Lehane concluded that both sides should be in contention for a second place finish in the conference.

“We need to sharpen our skills, get more focused,” Lehane said. “It’s one thing to be fit to train, but it is another to be fit to race. I think we’ll be able to do that as the season progresses.”

While the Terriers believed that they did not run up to par, the five-hour bus ride home did not feel especially long.

“Everyone was exhausted,” Iannacci said. “We just have to move on to the next meet. We’ll have a good practice this week and step it up in our next one.”

The meet was somewhat of a warm-up for the Terriers’ competition down the road against the team’s conference rivals, but Lehane said the team needs to heighten its performance if the runners want to meet their potential in future meets.

“We have to encourage everyone to be more aggressive when running,” Lehane said. “We’ll use this meet to push us harder and to intensify our competitiveness.”