It is safe to say that the Boston University women’s cross country program is a dynasty after the Terriers won their seventh straight America East championship at Franklin Park on Saturday.
The win did not come as easily as it has in past years, however. This year’s version is a younger and less experienced group that was not expected to win. The State University of New York at Stony Brook had been favored in the nine-team field, but the BU women edged them out, 36-43.
‘This has been a tough season, so we’re very excited,’ said senior captain Bolpar Vinh. ‘We were hoping to win, but we didn’t want to be overconfident. Our team was really young and quite inexperienced.’
‘They really pulled an upset,’ said BU Coach Bruce Lehane. ‘The front group ran about 20 seconds faster than they have run all year.’
That front group consisted of senior captain Sherida Bird, sophomore Dina Mijuskovic, and freshman Jessica Iannacci. Bird and Mijuskovic took fourth and fifth place, respectively, both crossing the line at 17:51 on the 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) course. Iannacci was right with them, grabbing sixth place only one second behind. This team effort was key to the victory.
‘They grouped up really well to the front of the pack,’ Lehane said.
‘We all just tried to run together, to catch each other the whole race,’ Vinh said. ‘And it worked.’
Jenny Payne of Stony Brook won the race, finishing in 17:32, but the pack of Terriers behind her was too much to overcome for the team title.
Impressive performances from graduate student Charlotte Coffey and Vinh were also important to beating Stony Brook on Saturday. Coffey finished 10th at 18:28, and Vinh was a few steps behind at 18:35, good enough for 11th.
‘Coffey ran a very aggressive race. In some ways she was the key to our win,’ Lehane said. ‘Bolpar Vinh did a fabulous job.’
The BU women should feel good going into the NCAA Regionals on Nov. 16. This weekend’s latest trophy is just another testament to the dominance of Lehane’s program.
‘I really think we earned this win this year, especially this year,’ Vinh said. ‘This was a sweet victory.’
Meanwhile, junior Jochen Dieckfoss continued a streak of his own for the Terrier men as he won his third straight individual America East title on Saturday. Dieckfoss was the highlight of a disappointing day for the men, as they tied for second in a nine team field they were hoping to win.
‘This was my goal to win this race, otherwise I would be pretty disappointed,’ Dieckfoss said. ‘Mentally it was a very tough race.’
‘The highlight of the day was Jochen winning,’ Lehane said. ‘That was his best race, I feel, that he has run at the university.’
Dieckfoss ran step for step for most of the race with University of New Hampshire star Dan Hocking. He pulled away in the final kilometer to win with a time of 23:45 on the eight-kilometer (4.96 mile) course, a conference record.
Overall, however, it was not a strong day for the BU men. New Hampshire won with a score of 25, well ahead of BU’s 67, a score which they shared with the University of Maine. Behind Hocking, the New Hampshire men took third, fourth, and fifth, quickly extinguishing any Terrier hopes of winning the title.
‘We could have run better and just didn’t run our best today. It was kind of disappointing,’ said senior captain Jordan Jones. ‘We knew what [New Hampshire] had, we just didn’t pick them off throughout the race like we hoped to.’
‘I think they struggled on the day, by and large,’ Lehane said. ‘There’s not much more to say about that, it was a tough day for us.’
Senior Rob Wong followed Dieckfoss, finishing 10th with a time of 25:14. Senior Paul Morrice was next (12th, 25:27), followed by Jones (22nd, 25:54). Sophomore Dan Coval closed out the scoring, crossing the line 24th at 26:09.
‘I couldn’t show up and run a tough race today like I wanted to,’ Jones said.
He seemed to speak for the team, as the Terriers could not accomplish what they hoped on Saturday, a day which held a wide range of emotions for Boston University.