Men Seek 19th NCAA Appearance at Northeast Regional Friday

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's cross country team will look to add to its Ivy League record of 18 NCAA Championship Meet appearances on Friday when it seeks to qualify at the Northeast Regional.

The meet — hosted by the MAAC, Iona and Manhattan — will see the men leave the starting line at 1 p.m. on the 10K Van Cordtland Park course in the Bronx. Two automatic berths into the NCAA Championship field on Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Indiana, are on the line Friday afternoon, while individuals are also vying for spots of their own.

If the team is not one of the top-two, it can still earn an at-large bid to the national championship meet based on a predetermined criteria*. Similar requirements will apply for individual harriers.

A Big Green contingent of 12 earned a fourth-place finish at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship two weeks ago at Princeton. That group of a dozen will be cut down to just seven this weekend as Dartmouth looks to qualify for nationals in consecutive years for the first time since a four-year stretch from 1998-2001.

A year ago on this same course, the Big Green finished fifth with 101 team points. Of the seven who will be representing Dartmouth this fall, only two were in the mix of seven last season as Silas Talbot (29th, 30:55) and Tim Gorman (32nd, 30:57) return with experience at this meet.

“We will be running in what is arguably one of the toughest of the nine regions in the country. Syracuse is ranked No. 3 nationally and Iona is ranked fifth, they are heavy favorites to take the two automatic bids from the Northeast. Providence is also ranked in the top-20 nationally so it is a pretty stacked field,” The Marjorie and Herbert Chase '30 Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Barry Harwick '77 said.

“We will have the chance to face off again against five of the other Ivies and one of our top goals will be to finish in front of all of them,” Harwick remarked. “There will also be four individual runners from our region advancing to the NCAA meet and I think that we have more than a few guys that are capable of doing that.”

Dartmouth's 7-Man Roster

Nathaniel Adams

Joey Chapin

* At-large selection: The process for selection involves a review of regular-season competition and finish at the regional championships. Regional finish is the first criterion, for example, a fourth-place team may not be selected for an at-large berth ahead of a third-place team from the same region. But, a team with a fourth-place finish, for example, could “push” both the third- and fourth-place finishing team into the championships if the fourth-place team has enough “wins” to be the next at-large team. Wins from the regular-season are only counted if squads beat another's “A” team, defined by having competed four or more individuals in that regular-season meet that competed at the regional championships. Official designations of “A” and “B” teams can only be accomplished after the results of the NCAA regional meets have been completed. Also, only competitions starting September 27 through regional meet weekend are included in the analysis.

Additional Individual Selections: After teams have been determined, 38 additional individuals per gender are selected to compete at the NCAA Championships. From those teams NOT selected in the above process, the top four finishers at each regional are automatically selected (but must have finished within the top 25 of the region).

At-large selection: Two additional athletes will be selected from the remainder of the national pool (and must have finished in the regional top-25) as at-large individuals.

Schedules