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Washington University cross country coach Jeff Stiles was named the 2011 Division III Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.

Stiles, who coaches both the men’s and women’s squads along with the track and field teams, just completed his 11th and most successful season as the cross-country coach at the University. He helped lead the women’s team to its first ever NCAA Division III national championship on Nov. 19, while also guiding the men’s team to a third-place finish.

The championship is the program’s first, while the third-place finish for the men’s team was also a school-best mark.

Both squads also won University Athletic Association titles this year—the women’s squad for the third straight year and eighth time under Stiles, the men’s squad for the second straight year and fourth time under Stiles.

Stiles began coaching cross-country at the University in 2001, two years after graduating from North Central College in Illinois. Al Carius, the head coach at North Central who was named 2011 Men’s Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA, was Stiles’ coach in college.

Stiles and the track and field teams will begin the 2012 indoor season on Friday at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill., in the Titan “First Chance” Meet, at 4:00 p.m.

Nathaniel Margolies | Student Life

Junior Emily Gosché, Senior Emma Brown, Sophomore Lauren Steimle, Sophomore Jen Reed, and Senior Alyssa Marulli line up on Francis Field before a game against Carnegie Mellon on October 2.

With the regular season successes of the Washington University volleyball, cross country and men’s and women’s soccer teams, a postseason berth was essentially a foregone conclusion for all four teams.

But the volleyball team and both soccer teams received additional good news on Monday, when the postseason brackets were released and all three found out that they would be hosting opening-round matches in the postseason.

Here’s a quick look at each of those three teams—along with the cross country teams, which will travel to Rock Island, Ill., for the NCAA Midwest Regional—and their looming postseason opponents.

Ending the regular season with a 14-3-1 record and a share of the University Athletic Association title, the Bears will open up postseason play against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Thursday evening at Francis Field. Whitewater, which finished the season as the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletics Conference champion with an 11-7-1 record, will be facing the Bears for the first time in history. Wash. U. is making its second consecutive tournament appearance and 20th overall, and it is seeking its first postseason win since 2007 when it reached the NCAA quarterfinals. The Bears are looking to improve their postseason track record after a heartbreaking loss in last season’s second round, in which they lost in penalty kicks to Loras College.

If the Bears win, they will travel to Delaware, Ohio, to face No. 6 Ohio Wesleyan University on Sunday. While Wash. U. has not played OWU since 1990, the Bears are 5-2 all-time against the Bishops.

The women’s team was rewarded for its 15-4 regular season campaign with a shot at home-field advantage in each of the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Bears have won at least one postseason game each year since 2006, and will be looking to continue that streak by beating Thomas More College in the opening round on Saturday. Thomas More comes in as the Presidents’ Athletic Conference champions, sporting a 12-4-1 record. The Saints will also be facing Wash. U. for the first time ever.

Eric Chalifour | Student Life

Junior Marilee Fisher plays against Webster University on Wedneday, October 26. The Bears scored a 3-0 victory Wednesday and defeated all rivals this weekend to win the Halloween Classic.

The Bears would host the winner between Ohio Wesleyan University (12-4-4) and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (12-6-3) if they advance to the second round. Wash. U. is 2-0 all time against OWU and 1-0 against Whitewater.

With a 32-1 record and the 2011 UAA championship to its name, the volleyball team will begin its 25th straight postseason appearance in the Washington University Field House. The Bears are very familiar with their opening-round opponent: cross-town rival Webster, which has never beaten Wash. U. in 19 tries (including a 3-0 Bears win on Oct. 26).

The Bears’ opponent in the second round would be either UAA rival No. 15 Chicago (the first team to beat Wash. U. in a set in 2011, during a 3-1 Bears win on Oct. 15) or No. 21 Wisconsin-Whitewater (whom the Bears defeated 3-0 on Sept. 10). Among the potential Regional Championship match opponents is No. 9 Carthage College, whom the Bears have faced and swept four times since the 2009 season, including a 3-0 win on Sept. 9 of this season.

With the cross country teams having another strong year, as both the men’s and women’s squads are in the top five of the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association (USTFCCCA) Poll, both have high aspirations heading into the regional meet on Saturday morning. The men’s team enters the race as the Midwest region’s No. 2 team, behind only defending regional champion and USTFCCCA No. 1 overall North Central College. The team will look to improve on its fourth-place regional finish in 2010, and will be facing some of the country’s best in North Central, No. 5 Wheaton, and No. 8 Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

The women’s team, which trails only Williams College in the overall national rankings, enters the weekend as the Midwest’s No. 1 team. The team will be looking to take the Midwest regional title from No. 7 overall Wisconsin-Eau Claire, which won the regional title in 2010.

On a sunny day with temperatures in the high 40s, Burnstein claimed his second straight first-place finish in the men’s 8K race, with a time of 25:29.80.

“I was fairly nervous about getting beaten during the race just because I didn’t run that smart,” Burnstein said. “I pulled away from the pack too early, so I was kind of exposed, just running by myself. Then [Carnegie Mellon’s Evan Gates] was just trailing behind me the entire race—I just couldn’t seem to drop him—and then the last mile or so I just pulled away from him.”

Jackey’s 22:08.82 time paced the women’s 6K field, which included five Bears in the top eight.

The No. 2 women’s team had little trouble outdistancing its competition; the aggregate time of the Bears’ top five runners was over a half-minute faster than that of second-place New York University.

Freshman Lucy Cheadle (22:23.75) earned UAA Rookie of the Year honors for her third-place finish. A pack of Wash. U. runners claimed the sixth through eighth spots, including senior Liz Phillips (22:37.62), senior Jessica Londeree (22:38.67) and sophomore Sarah Fisher (22:40.52).

Three Bears on the No. 3 men’s team after Burnstein placed in the top 10—senior Tucker Hartley (7th place, 25:50.51), junior David Hamm (8th place, 25:56.39) and freshman Ryan Senci (10th place, 26:05.24), who won male UAA Rookie of the Year.

Sophomore Elliott Petterson (20th place, 26:33.23) was the Bears’ fifth runner.

Head coach Jeff Stiles and his assistants took home a second consecutive Coaching Staff of the Year Award.

Stiles credited the back-to-back UAA titles to a “trickle-down” of senior leadership.

“I think that every year we have good senior leadership. Good things happen, whether it be the ones that are racing in the championship meet or just the ones who have put in sweat the last four years,” Stiles said.

A large contingent of the squad that was not racing made the trip to Chicago to cheer on teammates, which helped motivate Londeree, previously the Bears’ number three runner at 2010 nationals. She had slumped this season until running her best mile-split time of the year.

“I know our team has the ability to do amazing at nationals, and I really want to be a part of it,” Londeree said. “I think it was more just overcoming that mental roadblock during races. We call it ‘[going to] the well.’ There’s a certain point in your race where you make a decision—inside you’re hurt so bad that you have to make a decision—‘Am I going to take it to the extra level?’”

Stiles said he could not pick out one reason for the individual successes of Burnstein and Jackey, calling their improvements over the years a process.

“It’s just maturation as a person, maturation as a runner, confidence as a runner, which comes with the maturation process,” he said.

Heading into its final two meets, the women’s team is ranked behind only Williams College. The Bears would like to change that trend at nationals.

“If we don’t get first, our season is not a failure,” Londeree said. “But we definitely, I think, would want to get first.”

The men’s team faces a steep uphill climb to unseat No. 1 North Central and No. 2 Haverford.

“I don’t really want to put a number goal on the season just because there’s kind of a risk of doing that,” Burnstein said. “You don’t want to have one bad day at nationals, and suddenly the whole season seems like a disappointment, when it’s been an amazing season overall so far. We just want to be ready to run well at nationals and…establish ourselves as one of the best teams in the country.”

The Bears will compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional Nov. 12 in Rock Island, Ill. Placing in the top five at regionals would make them eligible for berths at nationals, and cracking the top two would guarantee spots.

Stiles does not know for sure whether he will choose the same seven runners that ran on the UAA championship squads to represent Wash. U. at regionals and nationals.

That was on Sept. 3 at the Washington University Big River Running Early Bird Meet. Fast forward to Cheadle’s second race, Oct. 15 at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Brooks Invitational, the Bears’ most important meet of the season to date. She fell to the back of the pack to start out, presumably a sign of rust after missing three races with a minor calf injury.

But it was just strategy, evidence of the intangibles that head coach Jeff Stiles raves about. Soon enough, Cheadle surged ahead, finishing third for the Bears and 15th among a field of nearly 400 top Division III runners. Cheadle started conservatively and finished strong, just as Stiles always instructs his runners to do.

“A lot of people have talent,” Stiles said. “That doesn’t mean that you do well or that you do well right away.”

Cheadle has managed to perform well immediately, though, and she is a crucial part of the No. 2 women’s cross-country team heading into its most important races of the year. The Bears are favored over No. 19 Emory and No. 26 NYU in the University Athletic Association Championships on Saturday.

Despite the expectations for herself and the team, Cheadle maintains an uncanny calmness through it all.

“If you just enjoy competing and don’t worry too much about the results and just push yourself, you’re in control of how you do,” she said. “Worrying about it isn’t going to do any good. I don’t set a goal [time] where if I don’t hit it I’m just devastated, so there’s really no failing as long as you’re giving it your 100 percent for that day.”

Cheadle will run track in the spring; she competed in the 800m, 1600m, and 4×4 events in high school.

She chose Wash. U. over two Division I schools, University of Washington—the division’s No. 2 team—and the University of Portland. A chemical engineering major, she said the Division I time commitment often takes away from one’s enthusiasm for the sport. Because there is much less scholarship money for cross-country than in sports like football and basketball, athletes often feel more pressure to perform well and avoid injuries, or they risk losing financial aid. At Wash. U., Cheadle can let her love of the sport drive her.

As a senior at Roosevelt High in Seattle, Cheadle was the seventh-place runner in the Division 4A Washington state championship and led her team to a 13th place state finish. The bar has been raised another notch this year.

“It’s definitely new being on a team that’s pretty much going to go to Nationals as long as we don’t have any huge mess ups,” Cheadle said. “In high school, for my team the goal was just to make it to state, and doing that was so exciting.”

Stiles pointed to Cheadle’s maturity as the source of her quick success and potential to become a perennial All-American.

“She pretty much had the mindset of a college runner while she was a senior in high school…You can’t give that to someone—that’s not anything that I can take credit for—that’s something that she came to us with,” Stiles said. “As a coach you can appreciate and observe and know that’s absolutely a reason why she’ll do well. As well as she did in her first race…I think it’s just a good litmus test of what she’s capable of in the future.”

Cheadle is the most visible of several impact freshmen on both the women’s and men’s teams. Ryan Senci has been a consistent top-five presence for the men and is usually joined in the top seven by Drew Padgett and Garrett Patrick. Grace Bridwell and Beatrice Gantzer project as top-five runners for the women next year.

Cheadle is the bridge between the present and the future for the Bears. The team has all but one of its top-six runners, Taryn Surtees, back from last year’s national runner-up team. As easy as it is to wonder about Cheadle’s potential as an upperclassman, the Bears’ best chance at a national championship could be now, with three seniors—Liz Phillips, Erica Jackey and Molly Wawrzyniak—in their current top five.

“We want to do as well as possible at nationals, whatever that means,” Cheadle said. “We just want everybody to be on the line ready to have the race of her life and see what we can do together.”

Jilian Fenton | Student Life

A swimmer competes against Saint Louis University on Sept. 30. Despite a 152-87 loss, the women’s team showed strength in their relays and freshmen on both the men’s and women’s teams produced impressive times.

No. 2 women’s and No. 4 men’s cross country
0.3: Number of seconds freshman Lucy Cheadle finished behind 2010 fourth-place UAA women’s runner Liz Phillips in the Washington University Big River Running Early Bird Meet on Sept. 3. Cheadle has been sidelined by a calf injury since then, but is expected to return Oct. 15 at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Brooks Invitational.

3: Freshmen among the top six men’s runners in the last two meets—the Greater Louisville Classic (Oct. 1) and the Wheaton College Invitational (Sept. 24).

25: Combined number of Division I teams defeated by Wash. U.’s men’s and women’s runners at the Greater Louisville Classic.

No. 2 volleyball
.314: Wash. U. volleyball team’s hitting percentage, second in Division III behind Maine Maritime Academy.
7: The number of sets the team needs to win to reach 58 straight-set victories, a Division III record.
12.98: The team’s assists per set, tops in the nation.

No. 9 women’s soccer
8: Number of goals needed by freshman Anna Zambricki to tie the school record of 17 goals by a freshman, set by Rachel Sweeney in 1996. Zambricki has nine goals through 10 games this season.
25: National rank, in goals per game, out of 342 teams in Division III, the highest in the University Athletic Association.
37: Goals scored this season by the women’s soccer team, already more than in nine of the 21 seasons since the program’s inception.

No. 9 men’s soccer
4: The highest ranking achieved by the men’s team this season, also the highest in school history.
5: Number of consecutive games in which senior Dylan Roman scored, spanning a 2-1 victory over Central College on Sept. 3 through a 3-1 win over Greenville College on Sept. 17.
438: Minutes the Bears held opponents scoreless, dating from the 12th minute against Central to the 90th minute against Greenville.

No. 3 women’s golf
74.13: Average score for freshman Olivia Lugar, the lowest in Division III women’s golf. Lugar has won three of the four tournaments this season and finished tied for second in the fourth.
308.25: Average score for the women’s golf team as a whole, the lowest for any team in Division III, four strokes lower than top-ranked and 23-time (including 14 consecutive) NCAA champion Methodist University.
3: Times this season that the Bears have shot 300 or lower as a team, including a team-record of 291 in the first round of the Millikin Fall Classic on Sept. 24.

Football
3: Touchdowns caught in a game by senior tight end Phill Stoecker on Sept. 3 against Knox College, a 28-10 victory, and by senior wide receiver Easton Knott in a 48-21 win over Rhodes College on Sept. 10.
27: Total tackles, including four for loss, by senior linebacker and leading tackler Nick Hillard.
38: Bears’ rank in total defense out of 239 teams in Division III. The team is giving up just 276.25 yards per game.

The fourth-ranked men’s team finished 14th out of 29 at the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday, Oct. 1, while the No. 2 women’s team took 13th out of 30.

Seniors Liz Phillips (17:52.48) and Erica Jackey (17:54.58) led the Bears past big-name schools such as the University of Kentucky, Marquette University and the University of Louisville in the women’s 5K. Jackey shattered her personal record in the 5K by nearly a minute, set at last year’s Louisville meet, and ran her best mile-split time of the season.

“This is probably one of the best Louisville meets we’ve ever had as far as overall how many people ran well or set personal records,” Phillips said.

Head coach Jeff Stiles believes Jackey is capable of consistently performing at the level she did on Saturday.

“There’s no such thing as a fluke,” Stiles said. “That was a big breakthrough, no doubt about it. That was probably the highlight on the women’s side.”

The men’s team defeated the University of Alabama and the University of Mississippi, among others. Three of the top five Wash. U. runners cut at least 28 seconds from their 8K times at last week’s Wheaton College Invitational, including leading runner Michael Burnstein (24:44.13), who was nearly 40 seconds faster.

“You just run fast [on this course] because there are no hills and there’s just a fast surface,” said Burnstein, a senior. “But also there’s a lot more competition this week because last week … was a really small, low-key meet, and it was all Division III, whereas this week, there were some of the top Division I programs in the country and just a lot more people pushing the pace.”

Returning to his hometown of Louisville, junior David Hamm (25:00.41) posted the second best time of his career in his first meet of the season. Hamm started racing later in the season so his body will not wear down before postseason meets.

“I pretty much ran as well as I could have hoped,” Hamm said.

Freshmen Ryan Senci (25:31.07) and Garrett Patrick (25:33.65) dropped 28 seconds and 33 seconds from their Wheaton times, respectively, to place third and fourth for the Bears. Sophomore Elliott Petterson (25:45.79), the fifth man, cut 15 seconds.

Senior Tucker Hartley, who is usually the Bears’ second runner, was sick and did not race.

Senior Molly Wawrzyniak (18:03.21), sophomore Sarah Fisher (18:25.71) and senior Jessica Londeree (18:44.74) rounded out the women’s team top five.

Freshman Lucy Cheadle missed her second consecutive race with a calf injury.

It was the first 5K of the year for most of the women’s top runners, who did not race at the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville meet two weeks ago. Upcoming meets will be 6K courses.

The men’s and women’s teams both sent out their top ten runners for the “A” race and their next ten for the “B” race. Some men’s runners competed in a “C” race.

Overall, Stiles was pleased with his squads’ performances.

“We had some kids perform great, some kids perform pretty well, some kids that were a little disappointed,” Stiles said. “It’s a hard time every year—it just seems like kids are pretty tired about this time with school and whatnot.”

The Bears have an off week before the Brooks Oshkosh Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 15, when Stiles expects Cheadle to return to action.

The fourth-ranked men’s team finished 14th out of 29 at the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday, Oct. 1, while the second-ranked women’s team took 13th out of 30.

Seniors Liz Phillips (17:52.48) and Erica Jackey (17:54.58) led the Bears past big-name schools like the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville in the women’s 5K. Jackey shattered her 5K personal record time by nearly a minute and ran her best mile-split time of the season.

The men’s team defeated the University of Alabama and the University of Mississippi, among others. Three of the top five Wash. U. runners cut at least 28 seconds from their 8K times at last week’s Wheaton College Invitational, including leading runner Michael Burnstein (24:44.13), who was nearly 40 seconds faster.

Junior David Hamm (25:00.14) posted the second best time of his career in his first meet of the season.

The Bears have a week off before the Brooks Oshkosh Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 15.

Genevieve Hay | Student Life

The Washington University Men’s cross country team takes off in last Saturday’s meet. The men finished in second place and took three of the top ten places, including senior Michael Burnstein’s (2444) sixth-place finish.

“It went great,” head coach Jeff Stiles said of the meet. “It may be the best opening meet, if you take into account both sides, that we’ve potentially ever had.”

The meet, hosted by Wash. U. in Forest Park, was the first chance at competition for many runners since last November. But for some members of the teams, the opening meet was a continuation of a cycle of training and meets that hasn’t stopped since their arrival here at Wash. U.

Multiple members of the cross country teams also run in the winter and spring track seasons, and some even competed in multiple events at the NCAA Division III 2011 Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

“When nationals are over for track, we start building back up and focusing more on the distance, the hills, the longer runs,” senior Liz Phillips said.

For some athletes, the events that are run in the spring are very similar to the ones run in the fall, in that they are pure distance events. Senior Michael Burnstein, for instance, finished third overall in the 10,000-meter run and 19th overall in the 5,000-meter run at nationals, helping the men’s team finish fourth overall at the event for its highest-ever finish.

Burnstein, who placed sixth overall and second on the team in Saturday’s 6K race, noted a big difference in the mindsets of the two seasons.

“The actual training is very similar, but as far as mentality they’re pretty different,” Burnstein, last year’s University Athletic Association individual cross country champion, said. “Track kind of feels more individual, where[as] in cross country you know your time directly affects your team’s place.”

He added that he preferred the fall season to the spring. “I’ve always preferred cross [country], I think. Aesthetically I like racing on cross country courses more, because there’s more variation. Every week there’s a different course…I just really value that it’s more of a team sport and you get much closer to your teammates.”

For other athletes, such as Phillips, the fall presents a very different experience from the spring. Phillips, who won Saturday’s 4K race, placed sixth overall in both the 800- and 1,500-meter runs in the national meet.

Facing two types of events very different from one another, Phillips embraces the differences in the seasons for her. She echoed Burnstein’s assessment of the seasons’ mentalities, but acknowledged that it was impossible for her to pick which she enjoys more.

“I think middle distance is a ton of fun and just kicking that last 200 meters of a race is really fun, really exhilarating,” Phillips said. “But at the same time cross country is longer workouts, harder workouts, [and] it’s more team-centered.”

These runners, however, came to Wash. U. knowing they would be working year-round. Stiles, who has served as the cross country coach in 2001, took over the track and field head coaching reins before the 2008-09 school year.

A former year-round runner himself at North Central College, Stiles enjoys working with both of the squads.

“It’s more challenging to do two sports, but I think it’s also fun and exciting. You’re dealing with totally different dynamics of people and personality requirements,” Stiles said, referring to the differences between sprinters and distance runners.

And even though the events can vary drastically between seasons, all athletes know it’s important to train throughout the year, and Stiles believes his teams are no exception.

“They totally complement one another,” Stiles said of track and cross country. “All the best athletes in the world train year-round. You’re just accomplishing different things in different phases.”

The cross country teams are off this weekend and will be back in action on Friday, Sept. 16, for the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Cross Country Challenge.

We couldn’t ignore Michael Burnstein’s staggering accomplishments during his career at Wash. U. In just two years, since his transfer here in 2009, Burnstein has established himself—not only as one of the best male runners in University history, but also as one of the best runners in the nation.

This cross country season, Burnstein placed first in the University Athletic Association championship meet. He was just the second runner to do so at Wash. U. and the first since 1999, and he led the men’s team to their first conference title since 2003.

Burnstein also took home All-American honors at the NCAA championships for the second straight year—the second male Wash. U. runner to do so as well.

“He’s just wired in a way that allows him to run his best when it matters because he’s not wasting energy fretting over [possible shortcomings],” said Jeff Stiles, coach of the cross country and track & field teams. “He expects to do well, and he’s just a real gamer. The bigger the meet, the better he’s going to run.”

Despite bouts of pneumonia and a sinus infection interfering with training and meets, Burnstein has still managed to put up winning times and has helped pave the way for a “rebirth” of the Washington University men’s cross country team.

Courtesy of Sangeeta Hardy

The women’s cross country team celebrates its second place finish at the 2010 Division III NCAA Championship meet. The women finished just eight point behind champion Middlebury College.

“Going into nationals, a team can have a lot of potential, and it’s kind of just like a coin toss whether you show all of it or none of it. There’s usually not much in between just because if someone has a bad race, a few seconds means a lot of places because it’s such a huge meet and there’s so many people,” senior Taryn Surtees said. “[On Saturday] we had a good day, and it was just really exciting.”

The women finished with 193 points at the meet, held at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, just eight points behind champions Middlebury College. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (214) placed third, while University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (218) and Williams College (230) rounded out the top five in the field of 32 teams.

“We missed first by eight points, but…no one was really upset by it. I don’t think that took anything from our [finish] because we were just really happy to be second,” Surtees said. “It’s encouraging that we had the potential to be first, but so many teams have the potential to be first that it’s not something you’re ever going to be upset about if you don’t achieve it.”

Surtees, who had struggled this season prior to Saturday’s race, led the way for the Bears, placing eighth overall with a time of 21:26.1. She also earned All-America accolades for the third-consecutive year, the first in school history to do so.

“It was such a relief because I didn’t want to go out with the same feeling as I’ve had after every other race this season,” Surtees said. “It’s strange how one race can turn a whole season around, but this one definitely did it.”

Junior co-captain Elizabeth Phillips, the team’s second scorer, finished in 21:49.1, placing 39th overall, while senior Jessica Londeree placed 48th, clocking in at 21:58.1. Freshman Sarah Fisher (22:15.3, 79th) and junior Molly Wawrzyniak (22:34.9, 123rd) were the fourth and fifth scorers.

The men took ninth place with 297 points, edging out University Athletic Association (UAA) rival New York University by 17 points. The meet’s winner, Haverford College, finished with 87 points, first out of 32 teams.

“We had hopes of coming in at the top four. It didn’t happen, but we still ran well. We were pleased with it,” junior Tucker Hartley said. “It could’ve gone better, it could’ve gone a lot worse. It was a solid day.”

At last year’s national championships, the team finished seventh.

“This year the teams are a lot better than they have been in years’ past,” senior co-captain Dave Spandorfer said. “You can just look at the teams at the top. They’re scoring less points than almost every other year that they’ve been [competing]. For our team, we raced pretty much as well as we did last year, but the results [weren’t as good this year].”

Junior Michael Burnstein, the Bears’ first scorer, finished in 24:51.8, good for 30th overall. Burnstein garnered All-America honors for the second time, becoming the second men’s runner to do so in school history.

Sophomore David Hamm (25:11.9) took second for the Bears, finishing 57th, while Hartley (25:18.7, 73rd), Spandorfer (25:22.2, 87th) and senior Alden Black (25:41.6, 139th) rounded out the team’s scoring spots.

“We didn’t have our best day, but we all had good days, and that’s something to be proud of,” Hartley said.

The women’s team’s second-place finish is the best in program history, above three third-place finishes (2004, 2005 and 2007). The men, earning a top-10 finish for the second year in a row, were competing in the National Championship in back-to-back seasons, a school first.

“This is a really big turning point,” Hartley said. “I think we’re finally at the point now where we can expect to be there most years. Instead of focusing on getting there we can start focusing on trying to perform well there. I think this is going to be the start of a big change where we can expect to be perennially one of these contending teams.”