The University of Rhode Island women’s cross country team traveled to Hopkinton, New Hampshire, to compete in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship on Friday, where the Rams finished 29th out of 37 teams.
Rhode Island sent six runners to the six-kilometer race. Of the six runners, fourth-year Lily Saul placed the highest at 85th with a personal-best time of 21:23.4.
Other URI results included personal-best times from second-year Alison Pankowicz, third-year Hailey LaRosa and second-year Gwen McCloughan, who finished in 154th, 175th and 191st, respectively.
The competition is the last of the season for the team. For URI Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick, this event served multiple purposes.
“This is an amazing event because this is how a team and individuals qualify for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships,” Feit-Melnick said. “This is great experience for my young group because some of them have never been to an NCAA Northeast Regional. [It is also] just a great experience to keep working on bettering our team for next year and just gaining experience as an individual.”
From the athletes’ perspective, the trip to New Hampshire was a successful one, according to Saul.
“That course is pretty hard, so I thought the team did a good job,” Saul said. “They stayed together in their packs well, so a lot of people were faster than what they were at this course last year.”
For Feit-Melnick, the improvement showcased by four runners either breaking or tying their personal-best times is what the team is always hoping for.
“Each course is different,” Feit-Melnick said. “We really did run well. That’s Gwen’s career-best 6K. We really did have many 6K bests, which was awesome to see. Like I said, this course in New Hampshire, it was totally different from the Atlantic 10 [Conference] course [and] totally different from the Lehigh course. The returnees that had been on this course a year ago improved as well. That’s pretty awesome to see.”
When it comes to the athletes individually, the goal is very similar, according to Saul.
“Every course is different,” Saul said. “There are personal records that are different for each course. I wanted to run faster at this course than I did last year, and so did a lot of my teammates. I thought that was good.”
Cross country athletes don’t have a long offseason, as many compete in indoor track and field, which begins in the coming weeks. From a training perspective, Saul said that there are some slight differences.
“Indoor, I do shorter events,” Saul said. “I guess I’m going to focus more on my speed. I do the 800-mile indoors, so I have to focus more on speed than endurance, but cross country built a good base for us.”
While the turnaround between the cross country season and indoor track and field is quick, Feit-Melnick is excited for the opportunity to continue competing.
“We don’t have an offseason,” Feit-Melnick said. “If you’re a distance runner, it’s like you have three seasons. And then obviously everyone who’s not a distance runner has been training all fall to get ready for the indoor season. I always say we’re fortunate that we don’t have to end after a season ends because we go for three seasons. We’ve got things we need to do to regroup and get healthy or whatever it might be. [We’re] definitely super excited about that.”
While the cross country season has come to an end, many of the runners will be back in action for the beginning of the indoor track season on Dec. 6 as the Rams host the URI Pentathlon.
