Runners place 19th, 21st at NCAA Regionals

The GW women’s and men’s cross country teams finished 19th and 21st, respectively, in the NCAA Regional meet Saturday in Lock Haven, Pa. Senior Darrell Andruski placed 34th individually to lead the men, who were without senior Dave Azari, while freshman Bridget Skeuse ended her rookie season as the top female Colonial.

Without Azari, who injured his hamstring in practice Tuesday, the men traveled to the meet with an even younger team than usual. Considering those circumstances, Andruski said he was pleased with the men’s finish.

“Last year we finished 17th, so even though we dropped down, I view it as extremely successful,” he said. “We didn’t have one of our top runners, so we had five freshman, one sophomore and me. So to place 21st out of 27 teams is a good sign that we’re not at the bottom. In a couple of years, those guys are going to step up and prove what GW cross country can be.”

Sophomore Phil Sherman finished second for the Colonials in the 10-kilometer race, followed by freshmen Ian Hajek, Ryan Shaver and Daniel Morgan, in that order.

Villanova University won the meet, edging Georgetown by two points.

On the women’s side, Skeuse led the Colonials yet again, finishing 81st individually in the six-kilometer race. Only once all season did any other GW runner top Skeuse, when junior Trina Bolton beat her in the Maryland Invitational in October.

In the final race of the season for both the men and women, Bolton finished second for the Colonials, only one second and two places behind Skeuse. Senior Emily Jadwin, junior Erin Patton and sophomore Meghan Dunn followed behind.

Georgetown won the event handily, beating second-place Princeton by 22 points in the 26-team field.

-Jeff Nelson

Water Polo loses all three at Championships

The GW men’s water polo team finished last in the eight-team Southern Conference Championships this weekend, losing all three games it played to end the season.

Their first match up was against Queens College, a nationally ranked team, and the Colonials started tentatively.

“You get in a situation where you’ve never been there before,” GW head coach Scott Reed said. “We had a lot of nerves.”

GW found itself down 5-1 after the first quarter because of a few early turnovers, and could only play Queens even the rest of the way, losing 11-6. In the Colonials’ second game, they faced Iona College in what Reed called “a big offensive struggle.”

Iona forced GW into taking shots from the perimeter, and the Colonials only made five out of twenty-five shots, three of them coming from penalty shots. Those five goals were not enough, as they lost 8-5.

Those two losses put GW in the seventh-place game, where they had to play Bucknell University, a familiar opponent. In September, the Colonials beat the Bison 10-7, but lost to Bucknell 10-6 two weeks ago. GW started the game well and led at halftime, but things turned sour in the second half.

“We made a few mistakes here and there in the third quarter,” Reed said. Bucknell went on to win, 8-6.

The tournament marked the last games for seniors Pat Dodge, Chris Blick, Gur Doitel and Jason Grimes. Dodge ended his career by being named second-team all-conference and first-team all-South Division. This year is also the first time in the seniors’ careers that they made the Southern Conference Championships, and although they were disappointed to lose each game, Dogde emphasized the positive.

“I think something important is that in all three games we put ourselves in a position to win the game,” he said.

-Subir Grewal