Columbia cross country team sends seven runners to compete in ITA championships

A select seven men and women will head to Boston this weekend to represent the Columbia cross country team in the ITA Northeast Regional Championships to be held at Franklin Park. The meet serves as a qualifier to the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 23, with the top two teams at the regional championship winning automatic bids to nationals.

The men face stiff competition in the form of No. 9 Iona, No. 11 Syracuse, and No. 23 Providence. Starting the season at No. 3 in the Northeast, the Lions are currently fourth, a place they have maintained through October. The team is consistently mentioned in the weekly national rankings, but it has never been included in the top 30 nationally. To break up the top three groups will take a Herculean effort, no doubt, but the men will try to ride the momentum of their win at the Heptagonal Cross Country Championships. Team participation at the national meet would be an unprecedented feat for the men.

To the surprise of many, the women have crept up the regional poll throughout the season from a low of No. 8 in weeks four and five to No. 4 in the Northeast, where they currently sit after a courageous Heptagonals performance. They face No. 10 Syracuse and No. 21 Providence squads, plus Ivy rival Harvard, who was a mere six points ahead of them at the Heptagonal meet. The women seek a return to the big stage this year after a team dry spell that has seen two individuals—Carmen Ballard CC ’08 and Megan Lessard CC ’09—qualify individually. They have progressed all season long and would rightly peak for this meet.

Competition gets underway with the men’s 10k race at 2:30 p.m. and the women’s 6k race to follow at 3:30 p.m.