On Saturday, Nov. 21 both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams competed at the NCAA National Championship at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Winneconne, Wisconsin this past Saturday. It was a chilly day with highs in the upper 20’s, but the Panthers made the most of it. Facing challenging conditions and competition, both the men and the women’s teams posted impressive finishes in the final meet of the season.
On the men’s side, Sebastian Matt ’16 earned All-American honors, as did Abigail Nadler ’19 for the women as they both finished in the top 35 places overall. The men finished 24th in a field of 32 teams, while the women were eighth in a similar field of 32 teams.
Nadler led the women’s team with a 28th place finish.
“I just tried to stay in the lead pack and remain relaxed,” Nadler said. “I was struggling near the end but overall I’m happy with my race. Everyone on the team put it all out there and we should be happy with that.”
Adrian Walsh ’16 (53), Erzsie Nagy ’17 (94), Sasha Whittle ’17 (142) and Katherine Tercek ’16 (152) followed Nadler to complete the team scoring. Also racing were Nikki Schachman ’16 (187) and Emma DeCamp ’17 (216). Outside of the Middlebury team, Williams won the national championship and Abrah Masterson of Cornell College was the individual champion.
On the men’s side, Sebastian Matt ’16 finished as an All-American in 17th place. Chony Aispuro ’18 (92), Brian Rich ’17 (137), Sam Cartwright ’16 (229) and Kevin Serrao ’18 (245) scored the rest of the points for Middlebury. Conor Evans ’19 (253) and Sam Klockenkemper ’17 (267) also competed. For the men, Wisconsin-Eau Claire won the championship and Ian LaMere of Wisconsin-Platteville claimed the individual title.
Matt felt reflective after his final race as a Middlebury panther.
“It was an incredible day,” Matt said. “Coming back from a draining regional race, we gave it our all. It wasn’t the best race we’ve run, but it was the best race we could have run. Mickey came in clutch, leading us from the beginning to the end.”
This wraps up the season for the cross-country teams, but shortly we will see many of them race out on the track. There will be many of the same match-ups and it promises to remain exciting.
