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Men's cross country just misses championship

By Jon Amell

On December 14, 2009

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The Norwich men's cross country team came up a little short in its quest for a conference championship.

The team ended in second place following the conference championship meet in late October at Rivier College, trailing conference foe Johnson and Wales by 67 points. Norwich had one runner finish in the top 10, three others finishing inside the top 20 and the last two runners for the final six finish in the top 30, according to the Norwich Athletics Web site.

John Pomeroy finished eighth overall to help lead the Cadets to the second place finish.

The Cadets knew they would have to run very well to compete with Johnson and Wales.

"Johnson and Wales University has a strong team that Norwich couldn't compete with, but our team beat Emerson College on a tiebreaker with our number six runner beating theirs," said Joseph Rosenthal, a 18-year-old freshman mechanical engineering major from Pasadena, Md.

Johnson and Wales have won the championship two years in a row but despite that Norwich managed to run a very good race. The total time it took the Norwich runners to finish the meet was "2:28:33.82" with an average runner time of "29:42.77", according to the Great Northeast athletic conference Web site.

The team had a good season despite having some injuries.

"It went well, despite all our injuries. A good portion of the team sat out at one point or another because of an injury. We fortunately were able to have full numbers for GNACs," said John Haywood, a 22-year-old sophomore criminal justice major from Boxford, Mass.

The team this year was very young and had the most freshmen on it that the team has seen in four years. It will have something to look forward to next year with the young guys being more mature. The number of freshmen is expected to increase, said Rosenthal. "It will mean a lot for competition next year," he said.

"We're only graduating two seniors from our top runners, and many of the younger guys seem to be on the road to taking their spots. With hard training during the off season, we should be a strong force once again, and we should have no problems with Johnson and Wales," Haywood said.

The team had a regional meet on Nov. 14 at Southern Maine University. "Only ten runners are allowed to travel, and only seven are allowed to compete," Haywood said.

After that the team will begin getting ready for next year. Runners hope to get back to the top of the conference, something the team captured two seasons ago. "To be successful next year we must get better. It's a simple, yet challenging, goal to have. We have all the formulas to be a great team. Motivation, hard working athletes and the talent to get us a win, we just need to be a little better to get more wins," Rosenthal said.

"To be successful next year the team must train, both in off season, and during the season. You can't just show up to Cross-Country and expect to get into 5-mile racing shape in a week, it takes hard work prior to the season even starting; a base needs to be put into place so coach can train us as if GNACs was the first week of the season," Haywood said.