TOWSON, Md. --- The Moravian University cross country squads had a total of eight runners earn 2023 Landmark All-Conference honors this past Friday at the 2023 Landmark Conference Championships hosted by Juniata College on the Sunset Golf Course in Huntingdon.
Junior Nathan Hajel won the men's individual title and was selected as the Men's Performer of the Year while being joined on the All-Conference First Team by junior Owen Nahf. Sophomore Bryan Kerchner and senior Josh Mangini earned spots on the All-Conference Second Team while freshman Logan Betyeman garnered Honorable Mention honors. Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann and his assistants Jon D'Ottavio and Molly Sear were honored as the Landmark Conference Men's Coaching Staff of the Year after leading the Greyhounds to their third straight Landmark Conference title. It is also Baumann's fifth Landmark Conference Coaching Staff of the Year honor since he took over the Moravian program in 2011.
"Congratulations to Jesse and his staff for Coaching Staff of the Year recognition," stated Director of Athletics and Recreation Mary Beth Spirk. "He and his staff work tirelessly to recruit and then cultivate their runners to be the best on and off the course. Jesse has had success in his tenure because of his work ethic which he instills to his staff and his student athletes. We are proud to have Jesse on our team and look forward to future successes moving forward."
Junior Rachael Goodman and sophomore Tara Smurla were honored on the Landmark All-Conference First Team while freshman Alyssa Hockenberry earned a spot on the All-Conference Second Team.
Hajel finished first of the 98 runners with a winning 8,000-meter time of 26:08.2, just ahead of Nahf, who was the runner-up in a time of 26:12.57. Kerchner finished in eighth place with a time of 26:44.41 while Mangini was seven seconds back in tenth place. Betyeman placed 16th in his first Landmark race in a time of 27:20.28. Hajel was a member of the 2021 Landmark All-Conference First Team and made the Second Team while Nahf made the All-Conference Second Team in 2021 before being the runner-up the last two years for First Team accolades. Mangini was on the All-Conference First Team in 2022 while Kerchner and Betyeman earned their first All-Conference honors. Hajel is the fifth Greyhound to win the Landmark Conference individual title and Performer of the Year honors.
"Friday's course was among the most difficult I've ever seen as a coach with eight brutal uphills and a downhill descent which is arguably harder than the uphills because of its steepness and the strain it puts on your quadriceps," commented Baumann. "As a result, you have to be remarkably patient which is tough mentally because there's a much bigger crowd than you're used to through the first half of the race which leads to a lot of anxiety not-knowing when someone will make a move and surge from the main pack.
"Our team handled it extremely well, though," continued Baumann. "They fought hard through the unforgiving uphills, stayed patient and within their limits until some key points we talked about when it was wise to make a move. Nate and Owen were feeling awesome and took control of the race with roughly 3k to go and held on strong. We suspected that if they ran their "A game" they were the two best runners in the field, and Friday certainly showed that. Josh and Bryan did all they could to stay in the top 7 but around the 4.5k mark after the 3rd uphill some, the main pack broke away from them a little bit. They did an incredible job staying as connected as possible on a very difficult day. Then Logan came up huge for us, much like Geoffrey Kleinberg did a year ago. Some of our other top runners weren't feeling good on the relentless course, so we needed the effort Logan provided to surge from the pack in the 20th places up into the teens to help anchor the team victory for us.
"Friday was a day when we truly needed a full team effort, not everyone was "on" so the effort these five gave was invaluable in our team's success and we couldn't be prouder of the effort they put in," Baumann concluded.
Goodman led the women's team to a runner-up team finish as she finished sixth out of 98 runners in a 6,000-meter time of 23:57.24. Smurla was just a second behind Goodman in seventh place while Hockenberry garnered All-Conference Second Team honors as she took 12th in a time of 24:31.43. Smurla earned her second straight Landmark All-Conference First Team honor after being the Rookie of the Year last fall while Goodman and Hockenberry were both honored for the first time.
"The course was already among the hardest I've seen in my 18 years of coaching, but what made circumstances even tougher was the sun popping out about 15 minutes prior to the race and spiking the temperatures from the 60s into the mid 70s," noted Baumann. "There was a difficult balance between being close enough to stay engaged with your main rivals but also not over-doing it and jeopardizing the last part of our race given the course and devolving weather conditions. Rachael and Tara did a great job of that positioning themselves within the top 10 the whole race and working within that group. With about 1.5k to go, Tara was feeling great and made a distinct move to position herself in the top 3 of the race. Unfortunately, she had a lingering issue come back to slow her down and she lost a few spots over the remainder of the race, but she did everything she should have done to position herself to be as successful as she could have been. Rachael was clearly hurting from 3k on but was exceptionally tenacious and did all she could to immerse herself with the top 8 pack. I can't recall a time I've seen her battle that intensely for that long, she truly gutted out her top 7 performance.
"Alyssa was a little different from the others where she was a part of our 4-8 runner pack that put themselves a little too far back on the first loop, but she was clearly feeling good at the 2.5k mark and did a phenomenal job of surging through the field and picking runners off," Baumann continued. "This was easily her best race as a 'Hound and we're excited about the confidence it should instill in her to show her what she's capable of moving forward. Overall, we had an incredible day for the 'Hounds despite some extremely challenging circumstances!"
Moravian is off this week before returning to action at the 2023 NCAA Division III Metro Regional being hosted by Rowan University on Saturday, November 11.
