On Saturday, September 20, the Bates men’s cross country team placed first out of 13 teams at Bowdoin College’s Pickard XC Course. This is the team’s second-straight Maine State Meet title and the Bobcats’ eighth one in the last 11 years.
The men scored 28 points, with Nathaniel Aronson ‘27 (26:13.23) in 3rd place, Jack Crum ‘27 (26:15.62) in 4th, Kyle Verner ‘28 (26:24.30) in 6th, JJ Rocha ‘28 (26:27.32) in 7th and Nikhil Chavda ‘27 (26:28.26) in 8th.
With the spread only being 15.03 seconds, the top five men ran in a tight pack which earned them the lowest amount of points. Each team’s top five runners score points equal to their finishing places, and the team with the lowest total score wins; the sixth and seventh runners don’t score but can displace other teams’ runners to increase their points. Coming in sixth and seventh were runners Miles Logan ‘27 (26:26.12) and Sam Buckley ‘27 (26:45.24), placing 13th and 18th, respectively.
“I saw a couple guys falling back, so we just kept on moving up,” Aronson said after his race. “We were all working together.”
On the girls’ side, they placed 3rd out of 11 teams, scoring 51 points and coming in close with the University of Maine and host Bowdoin. Leah White ‘27 (21:47.21) placed 2nd in the race, with Maeve Ginevan ‘29 (22:26.52) in 7th, Lily Day ‘29 (22:39.38) in 10th, Gwen Anderson ‘27 (22:59.51) in 15th and Annalise Wood ‘29 (23:05.57) in 15th. The girls had a strong showing, with Mikayla Ferguson ‘28 (23:30.03) and Kyra Buckley ‘28 (23:34.84) in 26th and 27th place, respectively.
When asked about her second-place finish, White said, “I was just focusing on enjoying racing and not racing with a watch.” Her relaxed approach not only secured her a strong individual performance but also contributed crucial points to her team’s overall standing.
Out of the 17 teams that competed at the meet, Bates had a large number of supporters, ranging from family members to friends to President Garry Jenkins. The weather was perfect and sunny, and the course terrain was flat, and above all, the team showed up with spirit and grit.
While the men raced the 8k (4.97 miles), the women raced the 6k (3.73 miles). The team demonstrated support and camaraderie, cheering for the last finisher as loudly as the first. Even the track team came out to support their fellow runners.
After the race, Head Coach Danny Feldman gathered every athlete in a circle and announced, “Let’s say who we’re a fan of.”
A couple athletes give shoutouts to their teammates. Feldman concluded the meet saying, “We can only control certain things,” reminding the team that they can’t control the competition or the course, but they can control their effort, attitude, and how hard they push for each other.
