Front Row: John Dougherty, Joe Meo, Tom Boettcher, Fred Hoge, Tom Barry.
Second Row: Mike Kelly, Bill Totten, Charlie Rudar, Frank Calaguire, Steve Storey.
Third Row: Kevin Earl, Fred Anyzeski, Gerry Pieklo, Darrell Hullinger, Bob Proechel, Mike Battiste, Mark Levy.
Fourth Row: Head coach Ted Thoren, Jim Gillin, John Miknis, Chris Stocke, assistant manager Paul Ostrowski, head manager Ron Emery, John Brink, Bill Haley, assistant coach Tom McGory.
The 2012 Big Red
Louisville, Ky., is approximately 900 kilometers from Ithaca. After all the distance the Cornell women’s cross country team racked up in 2012, another 900 kilometers did not seem like far to travel with a shot at a national championship.
After winning its second consecutive Ivy League championship, placing third at the NCAA Northeast Regionals and achieving plenty of other milestones along the way, the Big Red completed a phenomenal season with a trip to the national championships on Nov. 17.
The year began quietly, with the Big Red – the defending Ivy League champions – ranked only No. 30 in the preseason polls. And despite victories in a tri-meet against Binghamton and Army, the Big Red dropped out of the polls entirely after two weeks.
Senior tri-captain Katie Keller – as she did all of 2011– won that season-opening meet against the Bearcats and Black Knights, while junior Rachel Sorna won the Rochester Invitational the following weekend. That set the stage for Cornell’s breakthrough. The Paul Short Run at Lehigh is one of the country’s most competitive regular season meets, and this season it featured 40 teams vying for the title. Cornell came away with a resounding victory, scoring 55 points to defeat second-place William and Mary by 47.
“The training has gone great, and it’s really terrific to see us take a big step in a positive direction running against nationally competitive teams,” Coach Artie Smith said after the race. “It’s a great step, but the exciting thing is we’ve got a lot of steps still in front of us the remainder of the season, and I think we’re going to continue to get better and better.”
Smith thought right.
The national polls, which did not have Cornell ranked in the top 30 prior to the Paul Short Run, shot the Big Red to No. 7 after the first-place finish. The Big Red had never been ranked higher by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association.
Cornell was using athletes from every class to make an impact on the national level. In addition to Kellner, other seniors running well during the year included tri-captain Genna Hartung and Kate Rosettie. Juniors Sorna, Emily Shearer and Devin McMahon were among Cornell’s top four runners all season, and freshman Caroline Kellner was scoring points for her team in her first year.
That trend continued two weeks later, as the Big Red squared off with 21 of the country’s top 30 teams at the Wisconsin Invitational. There, the Big Red battled to another incredible finish, placing fifth overall behind four teams who were ranked higher.
The stage was set for the Heptagonal Championship in West Windsor, N.J., the Kellner sisters’ hometown. They did not disappoint, as Katie placed first overall to win the individual championship, and Caroline took fifth among Big Red runners to close out the team’s scoring. In between, Sorna, Shearer placed second and third, respectively, overall, and McMahon finished 10th, as all four were named to the All-Ivy first or second team. The Big Red scored 31 points, dominating second-place Princeton’s 91.
“I had all my family here, my high school coaches, some friends from my high school team, so it’s fun to be able to come home and put on a show for everyone,” Katie Kellner said.
Next came the Northeast Regionals, where the Big Red raced very well, but placed third for the second consecutive year and missed an automatic bid to the national championship. But the NCAA knew what a terrific year the team had put together, and Cornell was awarded an at-large big to the championship in Louisville.
With the team’s name well known coming into the championship, the Big Red placed an impressive 13th in the country, in the top half of the 30-team field. The finish, Cornell’s best since 1993, saw Sorna place 34th and Katie Kellner come in 36th to both be named All-Americans.
With the team’s best season in nearly 20 years behind it, the athletes now look forward to the track and field campaign, where they will attempt to defend their Outdoor Heps title and their ECAC Outdoor Championship.
