In fact, that was exactly the word Galebach used.

“I was really surprised,” he said. “I went out a little conservatively and for whatever reason it felt really good and I started passing people.”

With the Crimson just one of two Ivy teams that will return all its starters next year, Harvard is looking forward to an even better performance next season.

“Although we didn’t get the results we wanted this season I think our team had some pretty encouraging performances,” McLean-Foreman said. “Given that almost everyone is returning we should be very strong next year.”

Women

Without one of their best runners—senior Beverly Whelan—the Harvard women finished a respectable 13th.

No Crimson runner qualified for the national championships on the 6,000-meter course. Harvard normally competes in five-kilometer races.

“Sometimes mentally it can be hard to know you have to run that much longer,” junior Lindsey Yourman (23:49) said.

Junior Rosalinda Castaneda (22:37) finished 48th for the Crimson.

Whelan missed the last race of her cross-country career because of a case of bronchitis she contracted since Heps that threatened to develop into pneumonia if she exposed herself to the elements by running Saturday.

Yet her collegiate running career is not finished. Harvard’s female runners will also begin to shift their focus to the next season of running. For some runners, that’s not as easy as it sounds.

“I’m still relishing in the fun of cross-country season,” Yourman said, “But many of the girls are looking forward to the track season.”

For captain Mairead O’Callaghan (22:22) and the other seniors on the team, running this last cross-country race definitely had its emotional edge. Their emotion even trickled down as far as the freshman.

“It was a bittersweet [race] for [the seniors],” freshman Leslie Irvine said. “They were pretty excited when they finished their last Bear Cage Hill.”