Michigan Women Dominate 2014 Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown; BC’s Liv Westphal Gets Individual Title

By Jonathan Gault
September 26, 2014

BOSTON — The No. 1 Michigan women and No. 3 Oregon men claimed big wins Friday at the 2014 Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown on a glorious early-fall afternoon at Franklin Park.

The top-ranked Wolverines used a 2-3 finish from Erin Finn and Shannon Osika to claim the win with 55 points ahead of No. 5 Georgetown (77). No. 14 Syracuse (134) and No. 17 Boston College (192). Individually, the race belonged to BC’s Liv Westphal, who made a big move in the second mile and pulled away to win on her home course by 21 seconds in 16:30.

We recap the women’s race below with results and post-race reaction. In the men’s race, defending NCAA XC champion Edward Cheserek and teammate Eric Jenkins crossed the finish line together in first and second to lead Oregon over No. 8 Syracuse, led by Martin Hehir (4th, 24:31),  No. 16 Providence (79) and unranked Georgetown (103). Men’s recap here.

Westphal was all alone at the end

Women’s race

Unlike the men’s race, the women’s was quick from the get-go, and by the mile (5:12), a pack of five women had a gap of several meters on the field, including Liv Westphal, Erin Finn, Dartmouth’s Dana Giordano, Georgetown’s Katrina Coogan and either Jessie Peterson or Margo Malone from Syracuse. Westphal made a big move in the second mile — featuring the ascent of Bear Cage Hill — and by two miles (10:28), she was up by about 10 seconds on Finn in second. Westphal extended her lead through the Wilderness section and would pull away to win in 16:30. Finn held on for second, in front of teammate Shannon Osika, who moved up well over the final mile to take third. Coogan was fourth and sophomore Taylor Spillane from Cornell surprised in fifth.

Quick Take #1: Liv Westphal is the real deal

Westphal was third last year here and 17th at NCAA XC but she enjoyed a major breakthrough here, dominating a field that contained Finn (15:26 5k, 6th at NCAA outdoor 10k) and Coogan (prs of 4:13/15:34), two contenders for top 10 at NCAAs this fall. Westphal, who is French, said that this was the first summer she dedicated solely to building up for cross country as she usually races a summer track season in Europe (11th in 3k at World Juniors in ’12; 5th in 5k at Euro U-23 Champs in ’13). She was hurt in the spring and redshirted, and instead of trying to get back in shape to run on the track, she focused on her XC buildup. That focus paid dividends as she was far and away the best woman on the course today.

Quick Take #2: Erin Finn said that Liv Westphal “was the best runner out there on the course today”

Finn said that it was clear Westphal — who trains on the course frequently — was familiar with the layout as she consistently gained time on the turns but she said it was a good experience for when the meets start to really count. Finn added that she and the Wolverines felt some pressure carrying the #1 ranking into the meet but stressed that they’re still building toward the championship portion of the season where the #1 ranking actually means something.

Quick Take #3: Michigan coach Mike McGuire

McGuire was happy with the performance of his top four but said there was some “leakage” at their fifth spot, which may have had to do with the quick early pace. Michigan had three in the top seven and #4 woman Megan Weschler was 16th, but fifth woman Taylor Pogue was back in 27th. Pogue was 11 places and 16 seconds back of Weschler, but in a bigger field like NCAAs (which is also 1k longer), that gap is going to be a lot larger. McGuire said that he thinks Michigan can close that gap if they have more runners working together as a pack.

Quick Take #4: It’s a new era at Dartmouth

Gone are head coach Mark Coogan, who guided the Big Green to a 16th-place finish at NCAAs last year, and Abbey D’Agostino, the individual NCAA champion in 2013. Courtney Jaworski was hired to replace Coogan, and while no runner can truly replace D’Agostino, who will go down as an all-time great in the NCAA, Dartmouth does have a formidable #1 runner in junior Dana Giodano, who was sixth overall.

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Giordano said that the transition from Coogan to Jaworski wasn’t major in terms of training, but that Coogan would sometimes step in during a workout and change it, which hasn’t happened so far under Jaworski. The Big Green have been doing a lot of mileage recently and Giordano said that a lack of speed work so far may have hurt her on the shorter 5k course, though that should change as the season goes on.

Women’s 5K individual results

Women’s 5K team scores

 More: Men’s Race Recap: Oregon Men Dominate, Edward Cheserek and Eric Jenkins Go 1-2 at Battle in Beantown
*Discuss the Battle in Beantown Here

Editor’s note: Jonathan Gault graduated from Dartmouth in 2013.