Savage leads men’s cross country to ninth place at Regionals
In the first NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships meet of his career, redshirt junior Dan Savage led the Saint Joseph’s University men’s cross country team to a ninth-place finish. The Hawks finished with an average 10k time of 31:53.
“There were six teams that I thought were probably insurmountable, although one of them turned out not to be,” Head Coach Mike Glavin said. “And then the next block of our region had seven teams that we had both beaten and lost to during the season, so that really became our race, right in the middle seven… We went up there looking at us, Duquesne [University], [the University of] Pitt[sburgh], Rutgers [University], La Salle [University], Bucknell [University], and Lehigh [University]… We lost to two of them—Bucknell and Duquesne—and we beat four of them… Not too bad.”
This year’s Regionals was held at Pennsylvania State University’s Blue and White Golf Course, which is, according to Glavin, a challenging course to run because of the hills. Last year’s Regionals meet was held at the flatter West Windsor Fields at Princeton University, where the Hawks averaged a seven-seconds slower 10k time.
“I thought we performed considerably better than a couple weeks ago at the Atlantic 10s,” Glavin said. “I didn’t feel like fifth place at the Atlantic 10s would equate to ninth place at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals. There were only 22 teams that finished as teams at that Regional meet, but you need to understand that there are 34 or 35 teams in the region. Some of those chose not to show because they weren’t going to do well enough. Those are the kind of teams that aren’t in the top 10. Ninth out of 22 sounds ‘eh,’ but… we really wound up ninth out of a region of 34 teams.”
Savage placed 26th overall with a 10k time of 31:24, missing All-Region honors by two seconds. Savage had been set to compete in last year’s Regionals meet, but was injured the day before the race, and as a result, was taken off the roster.
“It was something I’ve always been looking forward to,” Savage said. “I was right there last season, and the day before, I ended up having some kind of issue with my groin—I think I pulled something. I’ve really been looking forward to getting on the 10k and helping out the guys and seeing what we could do at regionals… Also, in my mind, I’m thinking about how it’s a 10k, so it’s going to be two extra k than I’m used to, so don’t go crazy, now.”
Though Savage is technically a senior, he’ll return to the team next year as a graduate student because he redshirted his sophomore season. Senior classmates Jimmy Daniels and John Mascioli helped provide Savage with the drive to perform his best at the meet.
“I was constantly thinking about the two other senior[s] since I know this is going to be their last Regional race,” Savage said. “I wanted to make sure I left it all out there for them and gave the team the best position we could.”
Junior David Dorsey clocked in at 31:35, placing 37th overall and setting a new 10k PR, while sophomore Justin Branco came in as the Hawks’ number three runner with a 56th-plac finish in 31:57.
Daniels and Mascioli rounded out the scoring for the Hawks with 64th- and 78th-place finishes, respectively.
Junior Collin Crilly and freshman Josh Clark also ran for the Hawks and made their Regionals debut. Crilly finished in 95th place with a time of 32:45, and Clark finished in 98th with a time of 32:48.
“Four guys probably ran their first 10k ever, which makes it even nicer that we knocked off four of the six teams we thought we were battling with when you consider that four of our guys hadn’t been in a regional meet before,” Glavin said.
The Hawks will head to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx, N.Y. to close out the cross country season at the IC4A Championships on Saturday, Nov. 19.
