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ORONO – Before Saturday’s epic America East Championship, the University of Maine men’s cross country team joked light-heartedly about their main rival and competition for the league title, UNH. They called the Wildcats overconfident and described in detail their foe’s racing strategy. By the sound of it, the Black Bears had the Wildcats pegged. Captain Kirby Davis even created a name for them. He called them “cockypants.”
Saturday, the Black Bears were right. UNH was confident. Sparked by a narrow second-place finish by Jordan Horwitz, who Davis just beat out for first place in the final 50 meters, and a new-found racing style, UNH embodied the term “cockypants” en route to their sixth America East Crown.
“We figured it was fate that they would come back and win here on our home course after we did that two years ago,” UMaine head coach Mark Lech said. “I knew we were going to have to have a great race. We ran well but we didn’t run a great race.”
Despite a thrilling race from Davis who won his second straight championship, three personal records and running on a home course which they knew inside and out, UMaine was denied the chance to bring home the second championship in school history. In the end, the Wildcats just barely escaped the grasp of both Stony Brook and UMaine. The Black Bears, eyeing another performance like 2004′s title run, concluded the team portion of their schedule with a third- place finish in the race. UNH took the title with 58 points, while Stony Brook was second with 61 points. The Black Bears capped off the day at 62 points, a mere five points shy of the much-coveted title.
“I can be unhappy, but I can’t be that unhappy,” said Lech. “I knew Stony Brook was going to be a dark horse and we always know about UNH.”
On the women’s side of the event, UMaine concluded their season with 162 points for sixth place. After watching Catherine Parker of UNH win the race with a time of 16:50, the fastest in conference history, the women’s team was led into the chutes by Jessica Belliveau. The New Brunswick freshman crossed the tape at 18:01 in 14th place. She was followed by fellow freshman Elonnai Hickok and Hana Pelletier. They finished 24th and 32nd overall with times of 18:24 and 18:50. Rounding out the top five were Shelby Howe and Brenna Walsh who finished 37th and 44nd place resectivley. Lech was pleased with the young teams finish.
After the men’s race, Davis, the individual champion with a time of 24:32, discussed the heartbreaking outcome.
“The team raced hard, we did what we had to do and they did what they had to do,” said Davis. “It just came out that we were four points short.”
At the finish, Davis managed to put on the after-burners and out kick a hungry Horwitz.
“I dug a sprint out of my ass somehow,” said Davis. “I thought he was with me with about 30 meters left. I was afraid he was going to get me then, too. I totally thought he was going to get me with a quarter of a mile to go. I thought Jordan was going to get the win.”
With barely 100 meters to go to the finish line, the pair pulled even and were locked in a dead heat. Davis, however, broke free with 30 meters to go and clung to a slim three foot lead over Horwitz. A subtle step to the inside was Davis’ move which proved to be Horwiz’s undoing..
“I’m pretty happy about it, pretty ecstatic,” said Davis about his finish. “The support from everyone around here is really nice and got it going.”
Lech was quite pleased with Davis.
“I was extremely happy to see him dig down and take it,” said Lech.
Around the quarter mile marker, Davis said that support assisted him in a huge way.
“One of our guys that was cheering said [Horwitz] was looking crappy and pretty tired, so I said lets dig a little deeper and make him hurt for it,” said Davis.
Josh Trevino, one of three top -seven runners who had PR’s, agreed with Davis.
“It was a tight race,” said Trevino. “I think our team did everything possible that we could do and the results show that. Stony Brook and UNH were just a little bit faster, that was all.”
After crossing the tape in fifth place with a time of 24:53, a personal best, Trevino and the Black Bears appeared to be in good shape. But only seconds later, UNH and Stony Brook put two runners ahead of UMaine’s third man, Donny Drake.
“I think it just came down to placing,” said Trevino. “[UNH] hit the places better than we did. That was all. Everyone did great.”
Drake touched the tape in 13th place at 25:26. The distance between Trevino and Drake, the team’s two and three guys proved to be just too far in regard to the end results.
Still, the Black Bears are quick to defend Drake’s race. On this day it was more about the Wildcats and Seawolves’ strong performances.
“Donny had to overcome a lot this season, he raced well today,” said Davis.
Adding to the suspense was a change in UNH’s racing strategy. Known for their fast starts, the Wildcats elected to slow it down and work more off their opponents for the first three miles.
“I was surprised,” said Trevino. “The race went out very slowly this year but it picked up. I think this year everyone was better at pacing themselves. I think that is what happened. Everyone got faster as the miles went on.”
Rounding out the top five were Miles Bartlett and Jon McGonagle for UMaine. Both came across the line with personal bests. Bartlett snagged an 18th place finish, while McGonagle took 25th. They had times of 25:33 and 25:47. The only problem was that Stony Brook’s Alex Relce and Shaun Krawitz were sandwiched between them along with UNH’s bottom two David Nayes and Benjamin Danton.
“We knew it was going to be really close between us and UNH,” said McGonagle. “We definitely weren’t expecting Stony Brook to be up as close as they were.”
Yet, McGonagle is eager to highlight the positives.
“Everybody ran the race of their lives and everything happened like it did,” McGonagle said. “We all ran well and up to our capablites.”
UMaine’s sixth man was David Manz, who replaced David Englehutt, the squad’s seventh man on the day. Englehutt, usually sixth or higher on the team, struggled to overcome the effects of a jaw infection during the race. Manz and Englehutt had times of 26:19 and 26:23 for 37th and 40th place.
“I ran really well, I was definitely feeling it at the end of the race,” said McGonagle who ran his best time so far at UMaine.
The squad avoided the chance to gripe about the terrible weather conditions or the narrow defeat.
“It was definitly sloppy, the way we like it,” said McGonagle.
In the end though it came down to the middle miles where UNH and Stony Brook made their moves.
“I knew it was going to be a close, hard race and Stony Brook was here to play hard,” said Davis. “When we were coming into mile two and there was a pack of 20 of us, three UMaine, three Stony Brook, three UNH and then just all the other athletes I knew what was happening. I didn’t realize that Stony Brook was that close at the end.”
However, the conference championship is not the ultimate conclusion for the team.
UMaine will next race at the NCAA regional qualifier in New York on Nov. 11. Davis in particular is hoping to make some waves at the regional.
“I’m looking to extend my season in two weeks; it’s a pretty big long shot, its never been done at UMaine, so I wouldn’t mind mixing that up,” said Davis.
