After the SCIAC championships at Prado Park in Chino last Saturday, Oct. 31, eight members of the men’s Pomona-Pitzer cross-country team received All-SCIAC awards. For those unfamiliar with the All-SCIAC system, this means that eight Sagehen runners finished in the top 20 of the championship race. Eight in the top 20? Surely this would be enough for the first place trophy?

Well, not quite.

The Sagehens’ finish earned them 39 total points, which was good for second place overall. The CMS Stags won the meet, with 33 total points. In this case, the lowest point total wins the race, and is derived by adding the placings of the top five runners from each team. Occidental finished in third with 119 points.

The dominance of the 5-C teams was obvious, as they monopolized 16 of the top 20 spots.

The men were led by a third-place finish from Brian Gillis PO ’10 in 25:46 and a sixth-place finish from John Mering PO ’10 in 25:59. The Sagehens’ third and fourth runners, Alex Johnson PI ’13 and Charlie Enscoe PO ’11, impressively finished in the top ten in eighth and ninth place with times of 26:05 and 26:17, respectively. Anders Crabo PO ’12, Hale Shaw PI ’12, Paul Balmer PO ’12, and Tristan Roberts PO ’11 rounded out the All-SCIAC Sagehens with times of 26:28, 26:50, 27:00, and 27:01, respectively.After a second-place finish to CMS at the Multi-Duals, it seemed that the gap between CMS and P-P was insurmountable. The Stags placed four runners in the top five, with the Sagehens stuck outside looking in.

At the Championships, however, the Sagehens closed the gap behind CMS to a mere six points.To achieve such results, the runners approached the race with a level of confidence and determination that was obvious to everyone watching.

Assistant Coach Torrey Olson admitted, “Watching the guys race on Saturday was the proudest I’ve felt as a coach. It wasn’t so much how much improved the team was over the performance from two weeks ago, or how close they came to beating CMS, but the mental toughness and focus the team so unanimously demonstrated. Not everybody had their best day, but each athlete fought the whole way more in that race than I’ve seen them do all season, and that shows tremendous growth.”

The presence of P-P’s runners in the front of the race was apparent from the beginning of the 8K course. Gillis battled with the second place finisher, and Mering followed close behind for most of the race. Following the lead pack, a handful of CMS runners battled with the rest of P-P’s top harriers. Various Sagehens concurred that feeling the presence of their teammates among the leaders of the race helped them put together focused, intense, and strategic races.

Enscoe noted the difference that having a strong front pack made in the race. “When I looked up in the second-to-last loop of the race I could see the field in front of me and knew pretty much exactly what had to happen for us to win it,” he said. “Knowing that made the race one of the most intense that I have ever been in.”

The SCIAC championship course consists of two 1,000-meter loops that the men run at the start and finish of the race, and a 2,000 meter back loop that they run twice in the middle of the race. The rolling hills of Prado Park are infamous for their thick, soft grass that quickly fatigues runners’ legs as they race along the course.

The Sagehens, however, were able to push themselves to endure the difficulties of the course by understanding the race not only as an individual challenge, but a struggle that the team endured together.

Balmer recalls an experience similar to that of Enscoe’s.

“Because the race was so small, as early as two and a half miles I could look around the long curve on the back loop and see John and Brian battling it out with CMS and Eric Kleinsasser up there,” he said. “I knew that if they were working hard, I couldn’t let myself back down.”

Having teammates around also gave the men the opportunity to work together to move through packs and chase down opponents. This is exactly what Balmer reports he and Roberts did in the final loop of the course.

“With about 600 meters to go I told Tristan to go ahead and get the CMS guy in front of us, and he said to come with him,” Balmer said. “We weren’t able to catch him, but we worked together over the final stretch to finish together in top 20 and hold off 1:51-800-man Jake Baechle.”

The Sagehens will have at least one more chance to chase down CMS in the West Region meet Nov. 14 on their home course. Be sure to come watch another intense and exciting race from P-P’s fastest men.