For the first time since 2008, Virginia has won the ACC men’s cross country championship –– the fifth conference title in program history.
It was a battle of a race, and in the second half, it seemed like Syracuse was close to securing victory as a phalanx of Orange runners formed a tight knit contingent, moving to the top of the leaderboard.
The race started off a little jumbled. The Virginia men struggled to get out quickly enough, with a lot of the Cavaliers stranded around 50th place. Notre Dame was taking the lead, but it was going to be a short-lived one.
Around the 3k mark, things began to stabilize. Virginia runners quickly gained ground, as graduate student Brett Gardener had climbed from 47th to 18th since the 1k mark. Graduate students Nate Mountain and Justin Wachtel caught up quickly, close on his heels. The Cavaliers had now situated themselves into an overall second place.
1,000 meters later, Virginia was in first place, with junior Gary Martin now securely in second behind Wake Forest’s junior Rocky Hansen. Wachtel and Gardener continued to rise into 12th and 13th, sandwiched by a handful of Syracuse runners. Mountain and graduate student Will Daley were behind them in 16th and 17th, but they too were closely followed by three Syracuse runners.
Cross country is scored based on the top seven runners, with the goal to get as few points as possible. So while very strong individuals, like Martin, are important to winning, there also needs to be a close enough pack of other runners in order for the team to win. This is why Syracuse was starting to pose a threat.
After this point, Virginia’s three-point lead at the 5k mark was diminishing. With a little less than 2k to go within the top 20 runners, five of them were Syracuse and three of them were in the top ten ––– with Syracuse’s senior Sam Lawler in 6th, senior Peter Walsdorf in 8th and senior Assaf Harari in 9th–– giving them a six-point lead ahead of the Cavaliers. That highly-placed, tight pack was looking potentially fatal to Virginia’s chance of winning.
At the front of the race, Martin was running alone as the gap between him and Hansen, still in first, grew. By now, it was clear that the only real fight for first was going to be between Virginia and Syracuse, as Wake Forest toiled in third, many points away.
Martin failed to close the gap between him and the Demon Deacon runner but still placed well, crossing the finish line in second with a time of 22:39.4.
Lawler was the next finisher from the two teams, but after him came Wachtel, running 22:59.7, breaking through the wall of Syracuse runners to finish in tenth. Harari was behind him in 11th, then two Cavaliers –– Mountain and Gardener in 12th and 13th.
Mountain crossed the line in 23:00.5, and Gardener followed him exactly a second later.
The next four from the two teams were all Syracuse with Virginia graduate student Nick Bendtsen in 24th just three seconds behind the fourth Syracuse runner.
Virginia graduate student Andrew Jones raced to the line a couple of places behind in 28th, and the final scorer for Syracuse claimed 39th while Daley claimed the seventh spot for Virginia in 42nd.
A mere four points separated the two teams, but in the end Virginia took home the trophy. It was a great day for the program, and there was a lot of excitement to be found throughout the coaching staff.
“I am so proud of these men,” associate coach Trevor Dunbar said. “Sticking together, executing the plan, and finishing the fight. Syracuse ran a very strong race and gave us a great battle, hats off to them. We look forward to carrying this momentum into the rest of the postseason. Go Hoos!”
Coach Vin Lananna was clearly happy with the performance as well.
“It was fantastic,” Lananna said, "It's actually a great conference…I’m not sure if there’s a better [cross country] conference than the ACC.”
The women had a tougher day than the men, finishing in fifth –– just one place behind where they landed last year at ACCs.
However, they had two All-ACC runners, juniors Tatum David and Gillian Buschée, who respectively finished in 17th and 18th. David ran a time of 19:56.5, while Buschée clocked in at 19:59.1.
Sophomore Stella Kermes finished in 34th in 20:15.7. Scattered around the top 70 runners were sophomore Ella Woehlcke in 52nd, sophomore Tatum Olesen in 56th, junior Cate DeSousa in 64th and senior Mary Ellen Eudaly in 70th.
The loss of Class of 2025 alumna Margot Appleton was definitely felt, since she had been the top performer for the women last year.
However, in comparison to the men’s team, the women’s top seven has had far fewer years of collegiate running under their belt, and their team will largely stay the same next year, whereas with the loss of the graduate students and likely Martin, too, there will be a large gap to fill on the men’s side.
Nevertheless, it is only apt that Virginia should celebrate this victory, it’s a culmination of all the years many of the men’s team have spent devoted to the sport and to Virginia.
Looking toward the remainder of the season, the Cavaliers will be running in two weeks at the NCAA Southeast Regional –– on Charlottesville home turf –– to determine the NCAA Championship qualifiers.
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