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| Men Win Plansky Invitational Title |
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| October 14, 2006 |
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| Photos from the Plansky Invitational The sun shone brightly at Mt. Greylock High School on Saturday afternoon, treating competitors and spectators alike to the best scenery and athletics the Berkshires have to offer. When all was said and done, the men’s cross country team had made a strong statement about their current level of fitness and excellent preparation for “championship season”, beginning next week with the Little Three. The squad captured the Plansky Invitational title, a 6000-meter race, with a mere 19 points to East Stroudsburg’s (PA) 83 and MIT’s 94. Stephen Wills ’07 returned to action and re-established his place as the Ephs’ number one man, taking home the individual title in 19:10. After two competitive women’s races, the gun went off at 1 PM sharp for the men and they tore across the initial field, but quickly realized a stiff breeze had kicked up and now blasted them in the face. Since nobody wanted to waste energy running in the front early, the pace went out slow and the pack was tightly bunched, led by Bill Ference ’07. Wills, Brendan Christian ’09, Morgan Seybert ’08, Corey Levin ’08, and the rest of the crew crowded in close behind the leaders. As they wound around the first woods loop past the one mile mark, and got some relief from the wind, Wills moved into the lead and started putting pressure on the rest of the field. With a unique course layout, however, the runners would once again run down the long, windy straightaway towards the baseball fields after making a sharp right just before the second woods loop. Because of this Wills decided to tuck back in and conserve energy for the last few miles. The pack remained in extremely close contact, with strong pushes to the front being made by Sean Hyland ’07, Colin Carroll ’07, Connor Kamm ’10, and Corey Watts ’10. The group did not begin to string out until passing through the second woods loop and traversing this course’s only serious hills. While Wills maintained his lead through this area and around the grass track to the finish, the action behind him heated up. Kamm completed a furious drive through the final miles by finishing only six seconds behind Wills in the runner-up position overall, a time of 19:16. Christian was only three seconds behind him in fourth pace overall, and he was only two seconds ahead of Ference’s fifth place finish. Hyland rounded out the scoring five with a 19:22 for the 3.7 mile course, while Ellis-Ferrara and Seybert completed the top-seven for the day by placing 9th and 10th respectively in 19:29 and 19:30. Carroll, Levin, and Watts all finished within three seconds of Seybert, giving the Ephs a 23 second 1-10 spread on the day, 12 seconds from 1-5. This pack strength will surely serve them well in the next few weeks. Next Saturday the squad will head to Amherst College to defend their Little Three title, and the following week they will head to Connecticut College’s Harkness State Park course in pursuit of the NESCAC Championship that has eluded them the past few years. In three weeks they will host the ECAC Championships at Mt. Greylock High School on homecoming weekend. Go Ephs! Men's 6k Individuals Team Results |
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