Friday morning, NC State men’s and women’s cross country competed at the ACC Championships in Cary at WakeMed SoccerPark. With the recent additions of Stanford, Cal and SMU in the ACC, an already stacked field became even more competitive. Although the women failed to claim their ninth straight title, junior Grace Hartman ran away with the individual title, winning by seven seconds.
On the men’s side, graduate Brett Gardner cracked the top 20, placing 17th, leading the men to a seventh-place finish.
After getting off to a slow start, Hartman took the lead at the end of the first loop. She pulled ahead and never looked back — completing the six-kilometer race with a time of 19:15.1.
“This course is one that you really have to be patient on,” Hartman said. “A lot of people usually go out really fast, but I think it’s just trusting that people are gonna start hurting in the back part of this course. I’m really confident about being able to get up these hills and everything. So I definitely tried to just remain confident in my training and know that I can pick up the hill like anybody else can.”
Junior Hannah Gapes finished in third place, 11 seconds behind Hartman. It marked Gapes’ fourth top-10 finish at a major cross-country event this season. She ran the six-kilometer race with a time of 19:26.5.
While the Wolfpack claimed two spots on the podium, the bottom fell out, as only one other runner placed in the top 50, causing the Pack to finish fifth out of a field of 17 teams.
Other contributors included freshman Ellie Shea who finished 29th with a time of 20:19.8. Sophomore Angelina Napoleon finished 59th with a time of 20:47.7. Graduate Fiona Smith finished 68th with a time of 20:55.6 Senior Brooke Rauber placed 86th with a time of 21:06.7. Sophomore Kate Putman rounded out the group with a 103rd place finish with a time of 21:20.7.
The men’s competition shot off at 9:40 a.m. and just under 23 minutes later, Gardner was the first member of the Wolfpack to cross the finish line. With a time of 22:59.7, Gardner placed 17th in a field of 158. Gardner saw great improvement from last year’s championship, improving 27 places from 44th. So what led to this massive improvement?
“Really just keeping my training volume as high as possible for as long as possible, and really focusing on the mental side of things and staying consistent even when I’m not feeling great,” Gardner said. “Whether that be from a leg thing or a sickness type thing or whatever it is, just staying as focused as I can on getting the job done no matter how I feel.”
The only other top-50 finisher was graduate JJ Malach, who placed 35th with a time of 23:16.7. Graduate Jake Toomey finished 54th with a time of 23:35.5. Junior Ryan Motondo placed 56th with a time of 23:374. Sophomore Wesley Larson finished 59th with a time of 23:39. Graduate Toby Guallter finished 84th with a time of 24:02. Freshman Noah Valyo finished 99th with a time of 24:13.5.
Both Hartman and Gardner cited home course advantage as contributing to their success but in different ways.
“There were a lot of fans out here today,” Gardner said. “There’s a lot of support. I heard a lot of ‘Go Wolfpack’. A lot of ‘Let’s go Brett’, so that was really cool … I saw old teammates and tons of people. I was smiling out there on the course. That’s a big boost.”
Hartman pointed to the advantage of practicing on the course.
“There’s always a home-court advantage,” Hartman said. “We practice out here frequently. I’ve been able to imagine this while working out, so it definitely plays a huge role.”
Hartman, Gapes and Gardner were awarded All-ACC honors.
Wolfpack cross country will next compete at the Blue Devil Invitational at Duke on Friday, Nov. 8, before the NCAA Southeast Regionals the following Friday.
