The Hopkins XC Program has been top tier over the past decade, yet the expectations continue to rise. The men have won two Mideast Regional Championships, and they have claimed two conference championships in the past three years. In 2022, the men were twelfth at the national championships. 2019 was their highest finish at nationals as they were fifth overall.
While the men have been very successful, the women’s team has been otherworldly. The Blue Jays have won fourteen consecutive regional championships and fourteen consecutive conference championships. They have won eight national championships over the past ten years.
The men enter the season ranked #10 nationally by the USTFCCCA, while the women enter the season ranked #6 nationally by the USTFCCCA. Below Head Coach Bobby Van Allen discusses the upcoming season for both the men’s and women’s programs.
Men
“The men’s team is poised to have one of it’s best season’s in program history. Returning are our top two from 2022 who were both All-Americans in Emmanuel Leblond and Gavin McElhennon. They will have a strong supporting cast featuring seniors Charlie Teeter, Jonas Larson. Bryce Thalheimer and Sean Enright, all looking to earn All-American honors themselves. Tommy Li looks to build on an impressive track season where he went 14:28 for 5k. New to the team is freshman Kenny Wanlass who went 9:01 for 3200m in high school and has looked great in early season workouts. The depth doesn’t stop there though, as there are several other key freshman and solid returners that can all challenge for top spots.  The team will look to defend its conference title against a very strong Haverford squad and aim to contend for its first ever podium finish at the NCAA Championships.”
Women
“The women’s team will be in a position it’s found itself in many times in the past decade, returning as NCAA champs while losing a significant amount to graduation. Two of the three All-Americans from the 2022 NCAA title team are gone in Alex Ross (5th at Nationals and Sydney Friedel, 30th). The team however will return All-American Sara Stephenson who placed an amazing 9th place last year in what was her best race of the season. Once again the depth of the team will have to step up and fill in a lot of holes. We will have some strong seniors and grad students capable of making some big impacts this year. Returning are two Hopkins grad student in Katharine Priu (53rd at NCAAs last year) and Callie Jones. Jones was a member of the 2019 NCAA team as a freshman before switching over to play soccer for the Blue Jays her junior and senior year. Now it’s back to the XC course for her. Joining Hopkins women this year are two grad transfers in Jenna Lange from Pomona Pitzer who placed 75th at last year’s NCAA championship, and Sarah Conant from UMass. Both will look to make big leaps from their undergrad days to form a strong lead pack up front. The depth though will certainly be the key to this team, with talent scatter amongst all the other classes. Harrinee Senthilkumar who did not compete in XC last year, earned herself a trip to the outdoor NCAA Championships going 4:31 for the 1500m. She’ll look to parlay that championship success into the XC course. Triya roy competed at the 2022 ncaa championsips for us as our #7. After a strong track season she’ll be looking to make a big impact this year up with our lead pack. Isis Diaz, Viviana Li, Cooper Brotherton, Mackenzie Setton, Adriana Catalano, and Aisling Callahan had remarkable freshman seasons and will certainly try to make a that big sophomore leap to the next level. It doesn’t end there either, with some solid freshman and returning juniors and seniors all adding to the continued depth. However, if the Hopkins women want to earn their 9th title in the last 11 years, they’ll have their work cut out for them going up against some of the stiffest competition they’ve seen in the last decade.”
The Schedule
Sep 1 – will open up with a low key tuneup meet, the Baltimore Metro invite. The women will have some strong competition in d1 teams Maryland and Towson, while the men will look towards executing some race tacts to prepare for the more difficult meets again.
Sep 15th – Iona Paddy Doyle Meet of Champs – Van Corlandt Park. While we should see some strong d1 teams at this meet, we are more focused on conquering a very difficult course. As we know we’ll see a tough course at NCAAs, being able to prepare on a course like Van Cortlandt will provide a great benefit moving forward.
Sep 30th – Paul Short @ Lehigh – the largest meet in the country with 140+ teams. As of now both teams are scheduled to compete in the division 1 gold races, although this could change.
Oct 14th – the one lone d3 meet on our reg schedule will see us fly up to Rochester to compete in the SUNY Genseo Mike Wood Invite. We’ll see some of the top d3 teams in the country there and a chance to lock up some key wins against some of those highly ranked teams to help with NCAA qualifying.
Oct 28th – conferences at McDaniel
Nov 11 – NCAA regionals at Loch Haven
Nov 18th – NCAA Nationals hosted by Dickinson.
2023 NCAA DIII Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Preseason
https://www.ustfccca.org/2023/08/featured/2023-ncaa-diii-womens-cross-country-national-coaches-poll-preseason