Senior Addie Engel running hard at a cross country meet. Credit: Courtesy of Addie Engel
With the final race of the 2023 season in the books, the cross-country season has come to a close.
It’s an end that didn’t work out the way the Buckeyes might have hoped. Seniors Addie Engel and Daniella Santos finished 61st and 67th at the 2023 NCAA Championships Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, at Panorama Farms Cross Country Course.
North Carolina State secured the team championship for the third consecutive time, winning by just 1 point over Northern Arizona.
Northern Arizona looked to be the team pulling ahead at the end, but a heroic 14-place jump up by North Carolina State’s senior Sam Bush saved the day for the Wolfpack, resulting in a 1-point victory. Florida’s redshirt junior Parker Valby won the individual championship by a landslide, having multiple instances during the race where she was out of sight from the runners behind her, getting her revenge after finishing as the runner-up last year behind North Carolina State senior Katelyn Tuohy.
As for the Buckeyes, the team did not qualify for the NCAA Championships because of its fifth-place finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, though Engel and Santos had high enough finishes at that meet to qualify individually.
At the beginning of the race, the runners crammed together in the middle of the lane, leaving both Engel and Santos stuck in the middle of a pack of over 250 other runners.
As the first leg went on, the giant pack of runners separated into multiple smaller groups. Still, there was not enough space to break ahead for those stuck in the middle or at the back.
Engel, who was stuck in the middle of about 10 other runners, was 41st after the 1K split while Santos was all the way back at 104th. After a while, Engel managed to break through and reach up to 35th at the 3K mark.
Unbeknownst, Santos was quietly climbing the rankings, making it up to 95th after the 3K mark.
After the 4K split, Engel continued to climb the rankings and was now up to 32nd, while Santos also made big strides and was up to 79th.
Unfortunately for Engel, this was the highest ranking she would reach in the entire race, but not the highest for Santos just yet.
As the final leg of the race began, Engel dropped back to 33rd, still with the hardest part of the race to come.
Santos quickly moved up another nine places to 70th.
The final stretch of the course consisted of a hill to climb, a difficult thing to do after running for nearly 20 minutes straight.
In the final 1,000 meters, Engel had a fall, which saw her drop back in the grid 28 places and eventually cross the finish line 61st overall.
Santos also made a few more moves on the runners in front of her as she climbed another three spots to finish the course in 67th, just six places behind Engel after being 63 places behind her earlier in the race.
The top 40 runners earned All-American honors, and Engel, who was well in that range for most of the meet, fell well out during the final stretch.
