HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth men's cross country team has been in preseason recently and is set for the start of the 2009 season this Saturday at the Dartmouth Invitational.
An historic run at the Heptagonal championships by Ben True '08 was the individual highlight of the 2008 Dartmouth cross-country season. Leading from the gun, True destroyed the entire field and became the first Ivy runner to ever break 24:00 for the famed Van Cortland Park Course. The race has to rank among the best ever by any Big Green harrier. The team also put together a strong campaign with a fourth-place finish among 35 teams at the NCAA regional meet as a notable performance; only a few points away from one of the two automatic spots to advance to nationals.
As the squad heads into 2009, there is a sense of quiet confidence that Dartmouth is ready to surprise some people. To outsiders, this looks like a rebuilding year after the graduation of True and multi-time All-Ivy selection Glenn Randall '09. The inside view from Hanover, however, is considerably more optimistic.
“We gained a lot of great experience last fall and several of our top runners enjoyed breakthrough seasons in track,” said head coach Barry Harwick '77. “I am confident that we can put two guys in the top 10 at Heps and have a spread of well under a 1:00 for the first five. If we can live up to that, we'll have a successful year.”
Leading the way for Dartmouth will be junior Tom Robbins (Evanston, Ill.) and senior Chris Zablocki (Essex, Conn.). Robbins was the runner-up in the outdoor Heps 1500 and has a personal record of 3:46 in that event. He was a high school cross-country star and for the first time in his Dartmouth career, he has had a solid summer of training. He will be among the best in the Ivy League. Zablocki scored in the Hep's steeplechase last spring and also qualified for the NCAA regional meet. Last fall, he earned all-region honors in cross-country.
The team will be captained by a trio of seniors, Alex Hall (Manchester, N.H.), John Schroeder (Nashua, N.H.), and Kevin Treadway (Niskayuna, N.Y.). All three are determined to lead the team to an outstanding season. Dartmouth will also be depending on a pair of sophomores, Brad Kenimer (Alexandria, Va.) and Ethan Shaw (Falmouth, Maine). Both runners had early success last fall before illness cut their seasons short. In track, they have both run under 14:40 for the 5K and look ready to really breakthrough this fall.
A large group of first year runners will join the Green this fall, seven members of the class of 2013 will show what they can do as they move from the 5K high school distance to the longer 8K and 10K courses run by college teams. While every runner has a chance to help the team, Coach Harwick singled out Jon Gault of Bedford, Mass., as the frosh most likely to have an immediate impact on the team. Last spring, Gault placed sixth in the 5K at the Nike Outdoor Nationals to earn high school All-American honors.
While most of the schedule remains the same from 2008, Dartmouth will add a new meet as they travel to Lehigh and the Paul Short Invite to gain some more top competition before they head into the championship portion of their season.
