With less than two weeks to go before the cross country Heptagonal Championships, the Harvard men’s and women’s cross country teams headed out to Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday to face some of the nation’s best competition at the Indiana State Pre-Nationals Meet.

Both the men and women posted strong results, placing 17th out of 36 teams, and 16th out of 40 teams, respectively.

“I was really pleased with how both teams did overall,” Crimson coach Jason Saretsky said. “The meet was a good step for us in the right direction, and we feel really confident about where we’re at heading into Heps, Regionals, and Nationals.”

A day earlier, several members of men’s and women’s teams participated in the Brown Invitational in East Greenwich, R.I.

The meet provided a good opportunity for Harvard to face some talented local competition. The men finished right behind the host Bears to claim second place while the women finished fifth.

PRE-NATIONALS

Facing 35 other teams in the “white” division—including 10 teams in the top 30 of the nation—a young men’s squad took on some stiff competition in its attempt to top last year’s 23rd-place finish.

Leading the way for the men was captain Dan Chenoweth, who finished the 8k course in third place with a time of 23:32.7. The senior finished just one second behind runner-up Ryan Hill of North Carolina State.

“Dan is a great competitor,” Saretsky said. “He knows how to put himself in a position where it matters. It’s a long five miles, and he does a great job spreading out his energy so he’s ready to go when the race really starts to heat up.”

The next Crimson runner to cross the finish line was Michael Hoffman. The sophomore’s time of 24.59.3 was good enough for a 97th-place finish. Rounding out the top five Harvard runners in the meet were rookies Maksim Korolev, Aaron Watanabe, and Kurt Ruegg. The three young runners placed 99th, 134th, and 135th, respectively.

“I thought that the freshmen were doing a great job,” Saretsky said. “We’re a very young team, so we’ve had growing pains, but they’re really starting to round into form, and some great things will happen here if they continue to work hard and stay focused.”

Coming off of a sixth-place finish at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, the women’s team rode a wave of momentum and its newly-acquired No. 31 national ranking into the Pre-Nationals meet. The Crimson did not disappoint, finishing a respectable 16th place out of the 40 teams it faced in the “white” division—eight of which are currently in the nation’s top-30 teams.

“It was another strong performance for the women,” Saretsky said. “They faced ranked teams in Florida, and some powerhouses in Georgia and Kansas. I was particularly pleased with how much [juniors] Jeanne [Mack] and Nicole [Cochran] improved from last year.”

“We didn’t run our typical top seven, so I thought that we competed pretty well for what we were given,” Cochran said.

Mack led all Harvard runners with a 36th-place overall finish in the 6K race, crossing the line with a time of 21:06.9. Sophomore Sammy Silva and Cochran also fared well, with their times of 21:06.9 and 21:25.4 good enough for 55th and 59th place overall, respectively.