Cross country teams race to strong finishes in Wisconsin

For cross country runners, it’s all about staying together.

In races with more than 300 athletes, the importance of racing in a pack is critical — and the North Carolina men’s and women’s cross country teams’ ability to execute their pack racing strategy helped them secure strong finishes in their most competitive meet of the regular season Friday.

“It was crazy,” redshirt senior Lianne Farber said. “It’s like no other race than we run in the season.”

The men’s and women’s teams placed 18th and 11th respectively in pools of 36 and 40, and picked off more than a dozen ranked opponents at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.

“We told our guys and girls to pack up and run as a team for as long as they could before they split off. It was a very aggressive race," said assistant coach Angela Reckart. “It’s hard when you lose sight of your teammates because you lose perspective of where you are in the race."

The women's team, which was ranked 13th going into the race, finished about where it was expected to, only beating one higher-ranked team. Twenty-two of the 40 teams in the women’s race, including UNC, were ranked in the top 30.

Farber and fellow senior Annie LeHardy paced the women’s team, finishing 27th and 37th, respectively.

“I’m proud of Annie and Lianne for putting themselves out there and going out with the elite group,” Reckart said. “They’re going to really be able to compete at the NCAAs, and they’re at kind of a different level.”

Farber said the team finished where it was expected to, but she thinks they have the ability to dig deeper.

“We all put ourselves in there and fought hard,” she said. “Nobody’s that pleased with the finish, and we’re just hungry to do a lot better at ACCs.”

The men’s team, which was unranked, sought to bounce back after a disappointing finish at the Roy Griak Invitational in September. They defeated three ranked teams en route to an 18th place finish in a field of 36 teams, 19 of which were ranked.

Senior Ryan Walling finished first for the Tar Heels, coming in 33rd place overall. He was followed by junior Stephen Mulherin, who placed 64th and shaved 45 seconds off his personal record.

“There was some adversity throughout the race. They split up a little bit, some guys went down, but they fought through,” Reckart said. “They were able to find each other throughout the race and dig deep, and that’s huge for our guys.”

Two UNC runners went down at points in the race, and redshirt senior Pat Schellberg lost one of his shoes, as did freshman Hannah Christen. But they all pushed through.

Walling said he was pleased with his individual performance and that the team had improved at being patient and running as a pack.

“We’re our strongest when we’re running together, because we do it everyday,” he said. “If we race like we train, it’ll be that much easier.”

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