Sports
Men’s cross country secure fourth place at Nationals
The Pointer
jwitt447@uwsp.edu
The men’s Pointer cross country team wrapped up one of their most successful seasons with a fourth place finish in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Championships.
The team went into the tournament fifth-seeded and finished better than projected on Nov. 30, in Madison, Ind. They came up just short of third spot in a close finale.
“Our goal going in there was to get one of the NCAA trophies and they give out four, but if you’re fourth you always wish you did a little better,” said veteran Coach Rick Witt. “Realistically that’s about where we should have been. We were the number five seed going in and we placed better than we were seeded, so I always tell people if you do better than what the seeds are then you actually had a good year.”
The team had some bad breaks at Nationals. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point senior Cory Towle was tripped about two-thirds of the way through the race; even though he was only down a few seconds, this cost the team valuable points.
“In a smaller meet, five seconds is maybe one guy; in a national meet it’s 15 guys and that is the biggest difference, it is a constant stream of people. When you fall down, even if you’re not on the ground very long, it’s 15 to 20 guys that pass you in that short amount of time,” said Witt.
Top finisher for UW-SP was senior Dominick Meyer with a time of 24:58, who finished 27th overall in the field.
“We were right where we wanted to be through five kilometers, and then most of us fell out of the spots we wanted. The hills of the course caught up to me,” said Meyer. “I don’t think we would have done anything different throughout the year. Our lowest team finish was fourth and that was national. I think we all stepped it up this year; we all knew that to be better from last year we had to be higher up in the races and everyone on the team did that.”
UW-SP Junior Brandon Dworak learned valuable experience competing on a national stage and will use this knowledge next year when he returns to help lead the team.
“The NCAA championship this year was a lot of fun; the only difference from last year was that we were just happy being there. This year we wanted at the very least a top four finish to take home a trophy,” said Dworak. “When it was all over, a lot of us were not only reflecting on the meet that day itself, but the journey we took this year and our college careers so far to get there.”
Dworak knew the team was going to have one of those special seasons because of the leadership and the depth of the team coming into the beginning of the semester.
“The only thing we were kind of hoping for was for the championship to be a day where we all ran out of our minds and pulled off the win; obviously that’s everybody’s goal, but it didn’t happen,” said Dworak.
UW-SP Junior Brian Finnel noted that not only was the team well-rounded, but Witt brought all his experience and knowledge to help the team succeed which gave them an edge over their opponents. Witt has led international U.S. track teams into Europe and New Zealand for events in the past. Dworak agrees that a big contributor to the team being the fourth best over 32 teams in the NCAA Championship is not only due to talent, hard work and determination, but inspiring leadership from the team and the coach.
“Coach always tries being modest about us being the ones doing the work, but we would have had a very hard time doing the things we did this year without him, said Dworak.
“Coach is a huge reason why we did well. He has so much knowledge and has experienced practically everything imaginable in cross country, so he gives us great tips and what to do during the race,” said Finnel. “Coach prepared us great with workouts and when to rest and so forth. If it wasn’t for him, we all probably would of burned out before the season was done.”
Nine seniors led the team to one of the most successful seasons in UW-SP’s history. The team knows that they will have to make do without the seniors next year, but sound pessimistic about it. In fact, they are looking forward to sustaining the success they’ve achieved this past season.
“I, myself, am not one of the more vocal guys on the team, but I believe next year, in a way, the reins are kind of being passed down to us after a majority of our leaders from this year will be gone, and it is my responsibility to make sure that we stay on track and look out for each other,” said Dworak.
Witt knows that the team is getting hit with a significant blow. Many seniors are leaving, but the team must look forward and keep pushing itself.
“When you say you have nine seniors everyone thinks you’re going to fall off the edge of the world, but we are going to have a good team next year,” said Witt.
Finnel agrees that this team has a good amount of potential next year, as long as the strong leadership backed up by unmatched determination continues.
“Next year our team will take a little bit of hit; we are graduating a good portion of the team. However, the team will still be very strong,” said Finnel. “Three of the seven from the national meet will be back next year and those will probably be our leaders. Due to the depth this year, the team will still be very solid and should be close to a top 10 team or better.”
Witt coaches not only the cross-country team, but the track-and -field team and has been with the Pointers for over 30 years. The only better finish he had with his team nationally was in 2003, when they took home second place.
“As for winning the NCAA Championship next year, anything is possible. If the guys put in the summer mileage, we will be sitting in a very good position next year,” said Finnel.
