NCC led by 1-2 finish from Patel and Baldonado; Washington MO edges Johns Hopkins by 1 point for Women’s win behind Lawler individual win

By Michael Newman for DyeStat

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Winneconne, Wis. – In huge championship track events, the winner of the race is allowed to take a victory lap after their win.

For North Central College’s men’s cross country team, that victory lap started when the gun went off to start the race.

The Cardinals captured their 19th national championship with only 43 points, four runners in the 11 places with five All-Americans. The team did not take command of the race in the front until the very end. In a way, they had command early on with their pack in position to strike.

RESULTS

North Central has been in control when they stepped on the line in every race this season seemingly with nothing going wrong. That almost was not the case on Saturday morning. The team had left their equipment on the team bus to go survey the course when they arrived at Lake Breeze Golf Course. When they got back, the bus was gone. The driver had decided to get breakfast. Luckily, she had only gone a mile away and came right back.

The start of the Men’s race had to be restarted as about 40 runners went down in the first 100-meters of the race. A similar instance happened the last time this meet was contested on this course in 2015 to North Central when three of their runners went down but the race was not called back. The Cardinals finished fifth in that race.

“We had talked about that to this team,” North Central coach Al Carius said. “We were very cognizant of that and aware of that. After the first recall, I thought did I have a self-fulfilling prophecy of that putting it in their heads. I was really concerned I had mentioned that I had even mentioned that to them. I was glad that we had everybody back from that first recall.”

Dhruvil Patel and Al Baldonado were on that 2015 NCC team that ran in Oshkosh. That experience from that race and the two other national meets that they competed in paid off in this race as the teammates finished 1-2.

Patel’s strategy in this race developed from his finish the week before at the Midwest Regional Race where he was the team’s third runner and finished sixth overall. He was treated for hypothermia after the race for almost an hour.

“He learned last week that he did not have to push the pace that early,” Carius said. “Today, the race came to him.”

Patel and his teammates settled near the front of the pack for he first four kilometers of the race going through in 12:22 letting Wisconsin-LaCrosse’s Josh Schraeder and Thomas Schultz dictate the pace in the front. The front back broke apart two kilometers later when Brad Hodkinson of Washington University MO pushed into the lead gapping Patel by 20-meters. Patel closed the gap and passed a tiring Hodkinson with 800 meters to go.

Patel crossed the line in 24:24. Baldonado, who was in sixth entering the final kilometer passed runners in the final stretch finished second just four seconds behind his teammate. Andy Reischling of Pomona Pitzer CA was two seconds back finishing third.

“The race played out like any other race. We got into position, stayed together, and moved together as a pack,” Patel said. “I was so happy (crossing the line). I was so happy when I saw my teammates come in.”

“Going into the last mile, there was a separation and the pack started to break up. I knew at that point I knew that was when the race starts,” Baldonado said. “I knew it was time to be tough. I did not make any major moves. I maintained the effort. People started falling off and I knew that I had to give everything that I had.”

Chris Buechner (eighth), Matt Osmulski (11th), and Zach Hird (33rd) were the team’s other All-Americans. Nolan McKenna finished 68th and Matt Norvell finished 88th despite falling after the first mile of the race.

The top three teams in the Men’s race all came from the Midwest Region. Washington University MO finished second (110 points) behind top 10 finishes from Hodkinson (seventh) and Nick Matteucci (10th). Wisconsin-LaCrosse finished third (127 points) led by Josh Schrader’s fourth-place finish.

The Women’s team race finish was closer. Two-time defending champion Johns Hopkins had the advantage through the first half of the race as they had five runners in the first 30 spots. Washington University (MO) made a charge through the final kilometer placing three runners in the top 13 to capture the national championship by just one point 98 to 99 ahead of Johns Hopkins.

“The whole time you don’t have any clue what the exact total is. I knew what we were doing. I knew Hopkins was winning from the beginning,” Washington University coach Jeff Stiles said. “I just knew what we were doing and knew we were running really well. With 400 meters to go, I told Molly Shepherd that she was our fifth. We can win this. She just took off and had the race of her life.”

Paige Lawler made her move with a kilometer to go and never looked back. She maintained that lead all the way to the finish winning in 20:55. She saw teammates Aly Wayne (seventh) and Sophie Watterson (13th) follow in. Lisa Gorham (29th) and Shepherd (79th) came in as the Bears’ fourth and fifth runners. Otterbein’s Claire Lamb finished second (20:58) followed by Annie Rodenfels of Centre University (KY).

“The plan going into this race was just to get out a little harder and put me in position to move up during the race,” Lawler said. “I kicked as hard as I could in the last 400. I did not know where anyone else was. You never really have it in the bag until it is over.”

Johns Hopkins, who had won five of the last seven D3 titles, put six runners in before Washington’s fifth crossed the line. It was the strength up front that gave Washington the edge. Caelin Reilly led the Blue Jays by finishing sixth followed by Tasha Freed (19th), Felicia Koerner (22nd), and Therese Olshanski (35th) who earned All-American honors. Ellie Clawson finished in 43rd place and was the team’s fifth runner.

MIT finished third (247 points) led by Leandra Zimmermann’s 17th place finish. It was the highest point total ever in this meet for a third-place team.