The men’s cross country team lost a tight race on Friday to 12th-ranked Notre Dame. In its last outing, the team captured a first-place sweep at the Raleigh Invitational. This time, N.C. State finished second out of a 23 team field.
The ninth-ranked Wolfpack, however, wasn’t pleased with its performance.
“We weren’t happy in second,” redshirt senior Wes Smith said. “We came in there thinking we should’ve gotten first. When you are expecting to get first, and you get second, it’s a little bit of a letdown.”
Smith was first across the finish line for the Wolfpack with a time of 24:08. He finished in eight place overall, whereas Notre Dame’s first place runner, Patrick Smyth, finished second with a time of 23:44. Liberty University’s Joshua McDougal won the 8K race with a time of 23:37.
“I wasn’t actually too happy with my individual performance at the meet,” Smith said. “I don’t think I ran fast, and I could’ve ran a lot better. I didn’t really do what I needed to do to get myself in better position.”
A big factor in the Fighting Irish’s 92-106 victory was the three seconds that separated State runners Gavin Coombs and John Martinez from Notre Dame’s Dan Jackson. If the Pack runners had finished only four seconds better, they would’ve jumped from 20th and 21st place, respectively, to 16th and 17th place.
Smith said even with the less-than-perfect finish, the future still looks promising.
“We didn’t line up everybody we had, so it is still looking good for us,” Smith said. “We’re not too upset about it, but we know we can do a lot better.”
State lined up without All-ACC runner Tibor Vegh and 2004 All-American Bobby Mack.
“They will definitely make us stronger,” Smith said. “Tibor is coming off of a long season of running track in Europe, so we’re kind of easing him back into it, but we know at the end of the season he’ll be back in the lineup. Bobby is just coming off of a little calf strain, so he’ll be fine.”
In the women’s meet, the Pack finished in seventh place with three runners posting times under the 18-minute mark. Unranked Rice pulled out an upset win in a field that consisted of No. 2 Michigan, No. 7 Illinois and No. 16 N.C. State.
“Obviously, we were a little bit disappointed,” senior Angelina Blackmon said. “I don’t think the coaches were completely happy with our performances either.”
The top three runners for State were Brittany Tinsley (17:10), Angelina Blackmon (17:14) and Bona Jones (17:28).
“I think me, Brittney and Bona ran well, but there is always room for us to get better,” Blackmon said.
Aside from those three, the team failed to score any other runners in the top 75. Blackmon said the team was using this opportunity to gauge where it is in the season.
“I’m pretty sure the coaches will make some changes before the next meet,” Blackmon said. “Some of us ran at ECU and had pretty good performances, so there might even be a change in the lineup of the top seven.”
The Pack travels back to Indiana on Oct. 13 for the NCAA Pre-Nationals.
“To prepare, we basically just need to train harder and get more people to run together,” Blackmon said.
