Cross country heading to nationals

The Columbia men’s cross country team and freshman women’s cross country runner, Waverly Neer, are heading to the NCAA Cross Country National Championships at Indiana State University.

The Lions’ men’s team, ranked 22nd nationally, and Neer qualified after impressive performances at the 2011 NCAA Northeast Regionals. The men finished with 96 points, ranking third overall amongst the 36 teams. Junior Mike Murphy, who finished 14th out of 240 runners, led the Light Blue with a time of 31:40.9 in the 10k race. Murphy finished just seconds ahead of teammates Leighton Spencer (18th overall, 31:49.1), Kyle Merber (20th, 31:55.3), Nico Composto (21st, 31:56.4), and Justin Heck (23rd, 32:04.7). Ben Veilleux and Jacob Sienko took 40th and 41st, respectively.

All the Light Blue’s men’s runners finished in the top 17 percent at the Regional Championships and narrowly missed out on earning an automatic bid to the NCAA National Championships, since the team finished third behind Syracuse and Iona. However, with its strong performance all season—particularly at the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships in October and the Regional Championships this past Saturday—Columbia earned one of the 13 at-large bids for the National Championships. This is the first time since 2005 that either one of Columbia’s cross country squads qualified as a team for the National Championships.

Freshman Waverly Neer finished 5th out of 243 runners with a time of 20:44.6 in the women’s 6k race. Neer completed the race within five seconds of second place, and led the Lions to a fourth place finish overall. The women’s team finished overall with 151 points, only 24 points from making an automatic bid. While the Light Blue had a strong résumé and case to be awarded an at-large bid for the National Championships, only Neer qualified to represent the Lions at NCAAs in her home state of Indiana.

The Lions also had strong performances from Caroline McDonough (13th, 21:08.7), Clare Buck (37th, 21:42.8), Noelle Van Rysselberg (39th, 21:48.6), Emily Lanois (57th, 22:11.1), Anne Carey (67th, 22:19.5), and Mallory Anderson (88th, 22:44.4).

The National Championships will be broadcast live on NCAA.com from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 21.