By CAM DONALDSON
Sports Editor
 

Cross Country opened their season last weekend at the Tufts Invitational, with the men finishing 3rd/8 and the women placing 6th/7. Mike Danahy '00 won the men's meet in record time, rendering former teammate Justin Freeman's course record obsolete by five seconds.

"I had no idea that I could go for the record," said Danahy. "I started the course just trying to stay with the leaders, but about two miles into the race I drove it up a hill and there was no one around me. I knew I had opened up a hole and I just kept going."

Danahy's mark of 26:52.5 is an improvement of 1:10 over his performance on the 8K course last year.

"I remember hating the course last year," said Danahy. "There's a couple of good hills and the whole course is slanted. Even after last weekend, I still don't like it."

As the temperature soared into the 80's, Danahy somehow managed to battle the course and the conditions, turning on the retro-rockets for the final quarter mile and racking up the first cross country win of his collegiate career. In the process, Danahy blew away three runners ranked in last year's national top ten, including Matt Twiest '00, who finished 12th with a time of 28:14.

"Mike was running against some great competition, but his sheer strength just took over," said Coach Al Fereshetian. "He was basically running off of the strength gained from his summer workouts. He ran 80-85 miles every week over the summer and he's brought energy and excitement to the start of the season."

Danahy appeared poised to break into the big time last year at the New England Division III Championships, where he entered as the #1 seed and finished 4th despite breaking his foot in the middle of the race. At one point, he hobbled back to 6th place, only to sprint past two runners in the last 600 meters. These days, instead of dwelling on what could have happened last year, he's smashing records held by an Olympic skier, Justin Freeman '98.

"I have to thank my teammates and coaches for this," said Danahy. "I thank them for their camaraderie and for being there in workouts. Without a team to share your accomplishments with, nothing really is great. My goal this year is to help us make Nationals as a team."

Bates appears to be prepped for a solid run at the postseason, finishing on the heels of Tufts (8th) and Brandeis (2nd), both teams that are ranked in the top ten nationally. With a 1-2 punch of Danahy and Twiest and sufficient depth to see eight different runners finish in Bates' top five in the last two meets, the `Cats are a team on the verge of a breakthrough at the national level.

"It's still early in the season and we're just getting into the swing of things," said Fereshetian. "The veterans have been setting the tempo and the freshmen have just started catching up. We have the tools to work with and we did very well against nationally ranked teams last weekend. I anticipate that we will get much better between now and the state championships."

The women's team is still trying to get in gear, placing a disappointing 6th in last week's meet. This is not the same squad we saw finish second in the state meet last year, where they captured the BBC title. A team notorious for turning it on in the clutch, we may never know what they are truly capable of until Bates hosts the state meet on October 10th. Adelia Myrick '99 was Bates' top performer last weekend, finishing 20th with a time of 21:11.6.

"We are definitely looking ahead to better races," said Myrick. "This meet was a good starting point for the team to get motivated and get back into it. We are really focusing on the state meet right now. That will be a big race because we are hosting it and we need to do well."