The 11th Annual Greater Louisville Classic featured some of the most talented runners in the country, as Marquette’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams toed the line against some of the nation’s best.
Though this course is known to be fast, muddy conditions did not slow anyone down until fatigue settled in on the men’s side for a disappointing 22nd place finish.
“The general feel among everyone (on the men’s side) is disappointment,” coach Mike Nelson said. “It was a pretty rough day. It just wasn’t our day, and we underperformed.”
Marquette’s first finisher was senior Connor Callahan, who crossed the line in 119th place at 25:28. The finish was 27 seconds slower than what he ran on the same course at the 2011 Louisville Classic and 38 seconds slower than his time at last year’s Big East Cross-Country Championship.
One of the few bright performances was the continued consistency of freshmen Cody Haberkorn (25:44) and William Hennessy (26:12). Haberkorn finished third for the team behind Callahan and senior Jack Hackett. There has not been a race all season where Haberkorn has not been in the team’s top three.
“The first couple races I didn’t want to set too many expectations and limit myself on what I could do,” Haberkorn said. “I don’t really focus on how other people are doing because they might be having a bad day. I usually try to focus on my own race, and it’s worked out pretty well for me.”
The men’s race featured nationally ranked teams like Arizona, Texas, Iona and Columbia. Defending national champion Lawi Lalang won the men’s race for the Wildcats with his teammate Stephen Sambu right behind him. No other runner would finish for 23 seconds, and for Marquette, the wait was even longer.
The deep field was the perfect setting for Marquette to shine among giants, but the performances were just not there.
The men’s side was ranked 13th in the Great Lakes region for the previous two weeks prior to the Louisville Classic. They fell out of the Great Lakes Region’s top 15 for the first time all season on Monday.
The women’s team finished 22nd overall in the 5,000-meter run, which was good enough to rise in the regional rankings from 13th to 12th. The team’s top five finished in under 18:37 and placed within the first 180 finishers of the race.
Freshman Molly Hanson (17:56) continues to be the team’s top runner as she broke the 18-minute barrier for an 88th place finish overall and first on the team. The course was wet, which made her performance that much more impressive since she set that as a goal for her first season.
“I don’t think she has adjusted to the 5K quite yet,” Nelson said of Hanson, who ran a shorter distance in high school. “I think she still has to learn more about that particular distance. She’s just good, and that’s all there is to it.”
Freshman Sarah Poirier was ten seconds behind Hanson to finish second, her best finish yet after a fourth place finish at the NIU Huskie Open and a third place finish at the National Catholic Championship.
“It was a little intimidating at first, but the race wasn’t too bad,” Poirier said. “It was crowded and there were a lot of girls, but it was fun. I knew I had to step it up a little bit with Elisia was out.”
With next weekend off, the men and women will be practicing and starting to prepare for the conference season, which is less than a month away. With the way things are going now, the freshmen men and women have been doing very well as they look to secure spots on the roster traveling to New York in the coming weeks.