Men Take 5th at Regionals, Geoghegan and Bleday Make Nationals

Friday, November 15

New York City, N.Y.

11:45 AM

Dartmouth College

NCAA Regional

Men Take 5th at Regionals, Geoghegan and Bleday Make Nationals

11/15/2013 1:09:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

By: Dartmouth

BRONX, N.Y. – Senior Will Geoghegan was fifth and classmate John Bleday was eighth Friday afternoon on the 8K Van Cortlandt Park course at the 2013 NCAA East Regional. Those two scores helped the Dartmouth men's cross country team grab fifth with 101 points.

On the strength of those two finishes, Geoghegan and Bleday automatically qualified as individuals to represent Dartmouth at the 2013 NCAA National Championship meet.

Syracuse claimed the regional team title with 57 points, while Columbia was second with 78 as both earned automatic bids to the national championship meet next week in Terre Haute, Ind.

Iona (81) and Providence (90) were the only other two teams in a field of 37 to best the Big Green on this day. Based on the points system used to determine which teams will receive the 13 at-large bids from across the country to nationals, it is unclear if Dartmouth's season will continue as all regional races need to be completed before scenarios can be examined fully. The NCAA will officially announce those programs moving on to Terre Haute Saturday at 3 p.m.

Geoghegan ran a 30:22.1 to claim fifth, a 12-spot improvement on last year's regional finish. Bleday gave the Green and White two top-10 harriers with his eighth-place showing in 30:29.0.

Fellow senior Steve Mangan was the next Dartmouth runner to cross the line, doing so in 30:50.6 and grabbing 27th place. He was followed two spots back by junior Silas Talbot in 19th with a time of 30:55.0.

The final member of the Big Green to pick up points on Friday was sophomore Tim Gorman in 32nd with a 30:57.9 finish to his credit.

Harvard's Maksim Korolev was the individual winner, crossing seven seconds ahead of the second-place runner with a time of 30:11.6.