The NYU men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Pittsburgh this past weekend, as the UAA Cross Country Championship took place on Saturday, Nov. 2.
The hilly course in Schenley Park did not hinder the teams’ performances, with the men’s (49 points) and women’s teams (60 points) finishing second to Washington University in St. Louis (26 points) and the number-nine ranked University of Chicago (54 points), respectively. This is the fourth consecutive second place finish for the men’s team.
Graduate student Dylan Karten has performed well consistently for the men’s team, and is ranked seventh nationally. At the UAAs, Karten placed third in the 8-kilometer race with a time of 25:24.6. Senior Ross Wistar and junior Dharan Kadiyala placed eighth and ninth, respectively, with a 25:37.7 and 25:38.9. Gallatin junior Sebastian Oja and Steinhardt junior Johnny Lake finished shortly after, in 11th (25:47.2) and 18th (26:01.8), respectively.
“I was second last year, and I was right with them at the last mile,” Karten said. “I was a little unhappy I let them get away, but I learned from it. Now we’re going to focus on those last few hundred meters, so hopefully they won’t get away from me next time.”
The Violets finished second place behind the Bears, ranked number two in the nation by the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association.
“Going into the fourth mile, we were all together, but Wash. U ran the last mile better than we did,” CAS junior Dharan Kadiyala said. “We’re not satisfied with second place, but we’re not going to let it affect us too much. There’s still three weeks left, and we’ll see them again at nationals.”
The women’s team came in second to Chicago by six points. Sophomore Lily Corsaro led NYU with a fourth place time of 22:06.1 in the 6-kilometer race. Shortly behind were junior Sarah Czuprynski and senior Hannah Borenstein in seventh and eighth, respectively. Coming in at 11th place was senior captain Emily Cousens, and freshman Kassiani Chrysanthopoulos finished 30th.
“I was happy with how I did. I was trying to improve on my race last year,” Corsaro said.
“It was also good to see Sarah’s and Hannah’s race,” Corsaro said. “They’ve been improving and racing so well this year. It was awesome that we were all so tight, which makes us a better team than we even were last year.”
The top four women runners were wit-hin 31 seconds of each other, and this close proximity helped them to a second-place finish overall. Going into the NCAA Atlantic Region Championship with a “pack mentality” will help them hold onto their top rank in the Atlantic Region.
“We definitely have been trying to emphasize a pack mentality, which we haven’t really had as much in the past before,” Cousens said. “During workouts, we run really close together, so it’s more fun to go out and run races together because we can all run strong together.”
Both teams compete again on Saturday, Nov. 16 at the NCAA Atlantic Region Championship in Geneseo, N.Y.
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Nov. 4 print edition. Sydney Pereira is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].
