Last Saturday’s NCAA East Regional Championship on the campus of Bowdoin College did not go as planned for 乐播传媒 men’s cross country captain Ryan Smith ’23 of Westport, Conn.

Reason being: He lost one of his shoes within the first mile of the 8K race.

“My shoe was loose because someone stepped on it, so I looked behind me and saw like 100 runners in pursuit,” Smith said. “I couldn’t afford to slow down to fix it. I kicked the shoe into the woods and kept going.”

Remarkably, Smith finished 11th out of more than 200 runners, pacing the Bobcats to a second-place showing overall. The next day, the Bobcats learned they’d qualified for the NCAA Championships for the 11th time in program history.

The women’s team survived their race without any shoe-related incidents. But captain Jill Richardson ’23 of Auburn, Maine, had a challenge of her own.

The Bobcats always try to run as a pack, but Richardson is, as her teammate Frieda Kickliter ’23 of Mobile, Ala., says, “different.”

Different in that she’s just faster than everyone else 鈥� not just on the team, but in the region. Richardson, an All-American in 2021, won Saturday’s race by more than 40 seconds, becoming the first 乐播传媒 women’s cross country runner to win the regional championship in 30 years.

So the challenge for Richardson was simple. How do you pace yourself when you are so dominant there’s no one else near you?

“My brother was there, and he called out to me to use the lead bicycle,” Richardson said, referring to the bike that leads the race, letting spectators and others know that the runners are approaching. “I thought that seems like a good idea, so I used the bike to pace myself and it worked!”

The women also placed second overall as a team, qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the eighth time in program history.

The women and men are now at Michigan State University, preparing for Saturday’s (Nov. 19) national meet, but for Smith, it’s going to be tough to top the regional.

“I would say it’s the most special moment of my cross country career,” Smith said. “Not because my shoe fell off and I still did well, but because we as a team achieved so much, together. There were a lot of tears of joy after we crossed that finish line.”

For the first time since 2012, both 乐播传媒 cross country teams qualified for the NCAA Championships in the same season. They are traveling to聽Winneconne, Wis., to compete Saturday against the nation’s best.

鈥淎lthough we run separate programs, we are totally invested in each other鈥檚 program,鈥� men’s cross country head coach Al Fereshetian said. 鈥淭his is what you want to happen 鈥� both teams to have success and have the chance to get out there and compete at nationals.鈥�

The teams share striking similarities. Both the women and the men entered New England Regionals ranked No. 24 in the country. They both finished in sixth place at regionals, and they both qualified for nationals this year after coming up just short last season.

鈥淓specially after the result from last year, this year was just a whole different feeling,鈥� said women’s cross country captain Ayden Eickhoff 鈥�19 of Corvallis, Mont. 鈥淎fter we found out the guys鈥� team was going too, we knew it was just going to be more of a communal competition over there, and we鈥檙e really excited about it.鈥�

This marks the sixth time in program history the men have qualified for NCAAs and the fifth time for the women. This is the women’s team’s second trip to nationals in the last three years.

鈥淣ationals is always hard,鈥� women’s cross country head coach Jay Hartshorn said. 鈥滻f it doesn鈥檛 feel hard, you鈥檙e not working hard enough. You just have to prepare for how hard the experience is going to be and being really ready to put it all out there.鈥� 聽聽聽聽聽

For the fourth time ever and the first time since 2008, the 乐播传媒 cross country programs get to host the NESCAC Championships this Saturday at Pineland Farms. The men race at noon and the women race at 1:00 p.m.

Both the men and the women won the Maine State Championship this year, and both squads show up in the national rankings, with the men ranked 28th and the women ranked 14th in all of Division III.

“We鈥檙e super excited,” women’s captain Callie Reynolds ’18 of West Hartford, Conn. said. “We found out last fall and at first it was exciting and then it was scary because it鈥檚 a 6K at Pineland which is a lot considering how intense the hills are there. But now it’s back to exciting again!”

Pineland Farms gives the Bobcats a great home course advantage.

“At Pineland, it鈥檚 super windy (as in curvy) and confusing and it took me and I鈥檓 sure a lot of people almost a year to figure it out,” says men’s captain Zach Magin ’18 of West Hartford, Conn.

Reynolds points out that the Bobcats’ knowledge of the course means they are able to pace themselves properly.

“Hopefully at the end of the race when everyone else is dying we鈥檒l be able to be like 鈥業 know this hill and I can finish strong!'”, says Reynolds.

Featuring compelling race-day footage, this video story captures the mindset of the 乐播传媒 men’s team in its run-up to the NCAA Division III Championship meet in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 17.

The Bobcats finished sixth at the meet, their best performance ever at nationals.

The video was produced by 乐播传媒 photographer and videographer Mike Bradley, himself a former collegiate runner.

The 乐播传媒 College men’s cross country team advanced to the 2004 NCAA Division III Championship with a fourth place finish at the New England regional on Saturday afternoon at Twin Brook Recreation Center.

Fifth-ranked Tufts won the meet, placing all five runners in the top 20 to score just 62 points. Williams, ranked 10th, was second with 83 points, while Keene State was third with 112. 乐播传媒 scored 145 points, edging Wesleyan (189) and 20th-ranked MIT (190) for the final qualifying spot.

Dan Johnson ’06 (Detroit Lakes, Minn.) led the Bobcats, finishing 13th in the 280-runner field with a time of 26:29.5 on the five-mile course. MIT’s Ben Schmeckpeper beat Williams’ Neal Holtshulte by less than two seconds in 25:37.6.

Joel Anderson ’05 (New Brighton, Minn.) and Steve Monsulick ’07 (Kents Hill, Maine) were both less than 25 seconds behind Johnson in 26th and 27th, while Michael Downing ’05 (Gorham, Maine) was 34th. Matt Biggart ’06 (Cheshire, Conn.) was 45th to round out the scoring for the Bobcats, who will return to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 1999.

The national championship meet will be held next Saturday at the Chippewa Valley Convention & Visitor’s Bureauin in Eau Claire, Wis.

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