Fort Lewis College senior cross country runner Hannah Hartwell has consistently proven she can compete with the top runners in the country, and Saturday’s NCAA DII Cross Country Championships was another example of that.
Hartwell closed out her fantastic Skyhawks career by finishing fourth in the women’s 6-kilometer race in Kenosha, Wisconsin, improving on her fifth-place finish from last season. Hartwell earned All-America honors for the second consecutive year, and her fourth-place finish was the highest individual finish in program history at the national championships. The top-40 runners earned All-America status.
FLC finished 21st out of 34 teams, behind Hartwell’s strong performance.
“Considering how the middle part of our season was going, 21st is definitely admirable considering we only had one All-American honor, as opposed to last year, we were 20th, and we had two girls in the top 10,” FLC women’s cross country head coach Gracen Key said. “It just kind of shows that our third, fourth and fifth are getting better and more competitive.
Hartwell finished the 6K in 20 minutes and 22.2 seconds. Tristian Spence from Adams State won the title in 20:11, followed by Grace Strongman from Colorado School of Mines in second in 20:17 and Claire Rethman from Walsh University in Ohio in third in 20:21.3
FLC finished 21st with 530 points; the team points are the finishing positions of each team’s top-five runners added up. Grand Valley State from Michigan won the team title with 65 points, Colorado School of Mines was second with 69 points, and Wingate University from North Carolina finished third with 131 points.
Key said the Wayne E. Dannehl National XC Course had a 700-meter uphill start, which was tough on the runners. There were some muddy areas covered by trees; it was a true cross country course, which Hartwell enjoyed, according to Key.
Hartwell was inside the lead group of 20 at the 2K mark. Key said this was a change compared to last year, where there was a lead group of 10 early in the race.
“That may have rattled her a little bit, but by that point at 2K, she was going into the wooded area that was very trail-like,” Key said. “So I had just told her to go have fun on some trails ... So she just kind of smiled at me. It was not a spectator-friendly course, so I didn't see her again until about 600 meters to go.”
The lead group started to seperate between the two and 3K mark inside the woods, with Hartwell jumping from the lower part of the top 10 to fourth. She moved up to third at the 4K mark, with Spence building a gap to the rest of the field in first.
Between the 4K and 5K mark, Hartwell dropped back to sixth as the runners started the final stretch of the race. But Hartwell had enough left in the tank to recover. She entered the finishing straight in fourth, and nearly caught Rethman for third at the line.
Freshman Carysa Marquez was the second Skyhawk to finish in 72nd in 21:32.6. Key was very proud of Marquez’s performance as a freshman. Before the race, she thought Marquez could finish in the top 60 at the national championships next year as a sophomore. After Marquez’s performance, Key thinks Marquez has a high ceiling in the Skyhawks’ program.
Senior Alliyah Molina finished 115th in 22:01.2 as the third-best Skyhawk. Senior Marisol Castilleja finished 201st in 22:53.3, and senior Althea Griffith finished 216th in 23:03 to round out the scoring positions for FLC.
Key is excited to see her younger runners continue to improve as she hopes the Skyhawks will finish as a top-15 program next year. Before that, Hartwell will lead the Skyhawks in indoor track with FLC beginning its season on Dec. 6, with the Mountaineer Open in Gunnison.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
