September 24, 2011 -- Dickinson Long-Short Invitational

The men’s 8k was the first race of the day and the CNU pack was a little tentative at the start. The first turn on the course went left and with the Captains assigned one of the right-most boxes on the starting line, they found themselves deep in the field a quarter mile in to the 5+ mile race. Just past the mile mark, the course headed in to the woods and a battery of steep hills where Joshua Bowling (Crewe, VA) made the best move of the group through the field. Establishing a better position for himself before returning to the lower fields, the senior ultimately placed 35^th (28:09) on the slow 8.1k course. William Kirk(Mechanicsville, VA) finished nine seconds later in 42^nd and rookie Van Lewin (Cape Charles, VA) wrapped up the 3-man scoring in 52^nd (28:40). Coming off a one year hiatus, Aaron Zook (Harrisonburg, VA) ran #4 for the Captains and his 29:00 (68^th) betters all but his 8k time on Salisbury’s lightning fast course. Adjusting for pack runners from the lead teams, the Captains tallied 95 team points in the Long Course component – 7^th out of 21 competing teams.

The Captains only had a trio lined up for the women’s Long Course race – Jade Zaharoff (Vienna, VA), Jessica McClelland (Stafford, VA), and Karen Bumiller (Burke, VA) – and they were determined to establish better placement in the field in the opening segment. Zaharoff ran comfortably ahead of the lead pack for the first kilometer before settling in with them heading through the mile maker and up to the woods. Much more comfortable over flat and rolling terrain, Zaharoff struggled a bit on the steep hills. She battled through to the flatter finishing run-in and wound up 45^th in a time on par with last year’s run on the easier course (25:29). McClelland found the hills in the woods a little more to her liking and pushed to a 73^rd place finish. Her 26:19 was over a minute faster than she ran last year. Bumiller suffered through some breathing issues and fell back to 106^th (27:05). The trio finished 10^th out of 23 teams in the 6k race.

Corey Lofton (Vienna, VA) led the Captains out of the gate in the men’s 4k race, towing his teammates in to good position through the first mile. Lofton hung tough with the lead group and was rewarded with a 13^th place finish 12:56 – 16 places ahead of last year’s finish with a 12 second slower time. Christopher Lyford (Leesburg, VA) and Samuel Martin(Rockville, MD) battled each other through the woods and finished 50^th & 51^st with the freshman Martin getting the edge at the line (13:41-13:42). Junior Scott Wright (Oak Hill, VA) posted a 14:16 time – 23 seconds faster than he ran last year on the much quicker course. The Short-Course men matched the 95 points of their teammates in the 8.1k race for 10^th out of 22 teams. Combined, the Captains ranked 6^th out of the 16 teams that competed in both races.