Cinnaminson’s Austin Gabay closed out his cross country section with a strong race at the NCAA Championships Saturday morning in Madison, Wisc.
Gabay, a junior at Butler, placed 68th out of more than 250 of the top Division 1 runners in the country on the Thomas Zimmer Course at the University of Wisconsin.
Gabay ran 29:40.5, a big 10K PR. He had run 29:58.4 at the Southeast Regional in Spartanbug, S.C., last year while running for Duke.
This was his first time racing at the NCAA Championships in track or cross country.
Gabay was Butler’s No. 2 runner. The Bulldogs placed 20th as a team. Gabay earned All-Great Lakes Regional honors after placing 8th in the regional race last weekend.
Gabay moved up consistently throughout the race, from 115th at 5,000 meters (he came through in 14:47.7) to 111th at 6,000, 96th at 7,000, 84th at 8K, 72nd at 9K and 68th at the finish. So he passed 43 runners over the last 4,000 meters.
Gabay has track PRs of 3:40.73 for 1,500 meters, 7:58.94 for 3,000 meters and 13:58.84 for the 5,000.
Syracuse senior Ethan Wechsler ran a huge 10K PR of 30:13.3 and the Orangemen – ranked 17th – finished 11th. Wechsler’s previous 10,000 XC PR was a 31:09.6 at last weekend’s Northeast Regional in Contoocook, N.H. Wechsler has run 29:22.69 on the track for 10,000 meters
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 