2008 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship Results
Senior #Jesse Schneider#, despite running most of the race with only one shoe, earned his third consecutive All-America honor with a fifth-place finish at the 2008 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship in Hanover, IN, on Saturday.
Schneider, who finished 21st as NYU won the National Championship in 2007 and took 22nd in 2006, was toward the front of the pack when he lost his right shoe at approximately the 2,000-meter mark.
"I cut too far inside, took a bad step and my shoelaces starting coming loose," Schneider explained. "I knew it was just a matter of time before the shoe came off."
Despite the frigid conditions ("My foot is still numb," he said 15 minutes after the race), and running with only one shoe "for the first time since my freshman year in high school," Schneider continued to move up as the 8,000-meter race went on. He finished with a time of 24:37.16.
After the eventual champion, Hamilton College's Peter Kosgei (L.S. Ayres Athletic Complex course- record 24:22.03) took a commanding lead with about one mile to go, Schneider briefly kicked and slipped into second place. He was passed soon after and fell back to seventh place. But, a final late kick by Schneider earned him the Violets' best-ever individual finish since the program was reclassified to Division III in 1982.
"It was my goal to finish among the top five," Schneider admitted. "After Kosgei took the lead, I tried to maneuver out of a group of six runners. I passed everyone for about two seconds, but couldn't hold that spot."
NYU's bid to successfully defend its championship, ended almost before it began, as three Violet runners (junior #Calvin Lee#, sophomores #Sebastian Schwelm and Matt Turlip#), were all involved in a multi-runner spill soon after the race had begun.
"It was a very tight first turn and a lot of runners wound up pushing into each other and falling," Schneider revealed. "Someone right next to me fell, and I was fortunate to escape that jam."
Violets' junior #Zach Maher#, who managed to avoid the pile-up and keep both shoes on, took All-America honors with a 34th-place finish (24:59.55).
Senior #Mark Hess# wound up in 144th place (25:51.23), Schwelm took 156th (25:55.26), Turlip was 204th (26:13.86), and freshman #Jack Fitzhenry# was 261st (26:45.81).
Calvin who injured his left heel in the fall, was unable to continue in the race
Overall, the Violets accumulated 392 team points, two ahead of 13th-place University Athletic Association rival Carnegie Mellon University.
The #1 ranked team in the nation entering the race, SUNY Cortland, won the title with 80 points.
Prior to Schneider's performance, the top NYU finisher at nationals was Hany Abdallah, who placed ninth in both 2005 and 2007.
