Lion Men Finish Fifth At Regionals; Anderson Punches Ticket To Nationals

Friday, November 12

Boston, Mass.

11:00 a.m.

Columbia

NCAA Cross Country Regional Championships

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin

Lion Men Finish Fifth At Regionals; Anderson Punches Ticket To Nationals

11/12/2021 2:22:00 PM | Cross Country

Columbia Results (PDF)Full Results (M)Full Results (F)

Columbia Cross Country's men posted their best finish at regionals since 2017, while Phoebe Anderson punched her ticket to nationals.

BOSTON — Posting their best finish since 2017, the Columbia Cross Country men finished fifth overall at the NCAA Cross Country Northeast Regionals, while for the Columbia Cross Country women, first-year Phoebe Anderson finished sixth overall to punch her ticket to the NCAA Cross Country National Championships as four Lions earned All-Region honors at the race ran at Franklin Park on Nov. 12.

Junior Tyler Berg posted the best finish for the Lion men, crossing the line in fifth place and his fate for the National Championships will be decided during the NCAA Selection Show, set to be streamed on NCAA.com on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 5 p.m.

Senior David Vorbach posted a 14th place finish and first-year Jack Bennett dug deep for a top 25 finish, crossing the line in 24th and with Anderson's sixth place finish, coupled with Berg's, gave the Lions their four All-Region runners.

HOW IT HAPPENED (MEN): Berg's time of 30:31 was five seconds ahead of the next runner, and he was only four seconds off the pace of the leaders. Berg, along with Vorbach's 30:48 and 14th place finish, gave the Lion men a pair inside the top 15 and the two Lion men were apart of six Ivy League runners who posted top 15 finishes.

Bennett, running his first collegiate 10K, crossed the line just inside the top 25 to earn himself All-Region honors. His time of 31:04 placed him 24th and was the third Lion man to cross inside the top 25. First years Ben Kuhn (31:35) and Julian Baeza (31:43) rounded out the top 50 finishers for the Lion men, crossing 41st and 47th respectively.

HOW IT HAPPENED (WOMEN): The fourth-through-sixth place finishes were all separated by one second each, with Anderson's 20:42 being just two seconds off the fourth place finishing time of 20:40. In what was her first NCAA Cross Country Northeast Regionals race, Anderson's finish was plenty high enough to punch her ticket to the NCAA National Championships and give her All-Region honors.

The Lion women as a squad finished ninth overall in the race, with sophomore Nikki Vanasse posting the next best finish for the Lion women with a 47th place time of 21:48. Senior Sofia Camacho crossed the line with a 57th place finishing time of 21:55 to round out Columbia's top 60 women finishers.

COLUMBIA NCAA NORTHEAST ALL-REGION

Women
- Phoebe Anderson (Fr.)

Men
- Tyler Berg (Jr.)
- David Vorbach (Sr.)
- Jack Bennett (Fr.)

COLUMBIA RESULTS
NCAA Cross Country Northeast Regionals (Nov. 12, 2021)
Boston, Mass. (Franklin Park)

Women (6K)
(1. Amanda Vestri, Syracuse, 20:05); 6. Phoebe Anderson, 20:42; 47. Nikki Vanasse, 21:48; 57. Sofia Camacho, 21:55; 61. Linnaea Kavulich, 21:58; 62. Emily Virtue, 21:59; 121. Kaitlynn Wolfe, 22:54; 142, Rachel Kenny, 23:10

Men (10K)
(1. Ehab El-Sandali, Iona, 30:03); 11. Tyler Berg, 30:32; 14. David Vorbach, 30:48; 24. Jack Bennett, 31:04; 41. Ben Kuhn, 31:35; 47. Julian Baeza; 31:43; 64. Anish Nanjappa, 32:12; 125. Talha Syed, 33:24

FOLLOWING THE LIONS: Stay up to date on all things Columbia Cross Country by following the Lions on Twitter (@CULionsXCTF), Instagram (@culionsxctf) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).