From Mid-Pack to All-MAC: Perseverance Pays Off At Conference Championships

With two kilometers remaining of the 2023 MAC Cross Country Championships, I was in 25th place. My pre-race goal of finishing top-14 and earning All-MAC honors seemed slim.

I couldn’t give up.

I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to have the best cross country race of my life.

What I did know, though, was the course. Two weeks earlier, the University of Buffalo Bulls took full advantage of the Falcon Collegiate Invitational hosted by Bowling Green to learn that same course, the one that would host the Championships. Getting to see the course so close to the meet left a fresh image of the terrain and allowed us to learn every turn and hill to pick-and-choose our best spots to attack when it truly mattered.

We won that meet – and I finished fifth overall – so confidence was high.

While walking to the start line this past weekend, flashbacks of my season rushed through my mind: from thinking I had a season-ending injury to having a slow start to my senior year, I knew I couldn’t let hundreds of miles – and all of the other hard work – go to waste.

Individually, I know what I wanted to do.

As a team, our game plan was simple: get out with the main group and put five guys in the top-25 through the first mile and continue to work from there. That idea took a hit when great athletes from Akron, Miami (Ohio) and Toledo took the race out hard. We lost each other in the sea of bodies; but by the 3k split, we bunched up with one in the top-20 and four others in the top-45. Still way behind our goal, but we knew the course and where to make our move.

I came through 4 miles in 20:08.7, which put me in 25th place.

I had moved up 12 places since the 3k split and felt momentum gaining with every step.

With less than one mile to go, I knew I had to dig deep. That’s when I looked up and saw my coach. After pushing past multiple competitors, my coach pointed out two Miami (Ohio) runners and said, “Those two guys are 14th and 15th! That’s an All-MAC spot right there! You gotta go!”

I told myself to calm down and hold on: I knew I had enough left in the tank for one last move. I kept my stride open and unleashed one last sprint to catch one more runner before the finish.

The clock read 24:44.2, but more importantly, I placed 13th to earn All-MAC Second-Team.

It took me a 4:35 final mile and I had to pass 12 runners, but I did it. My last mile ended up being the fourth-fastest of the day, only behind the top-3 finishers.

Preparation paid off. Even though we fell short of our goal of finishing among the top-3 teams, we had numerous outstanding individual performances and held our heads high.

Next up are the Northeast Region Championships at legendary Van Cortlandt Park on November 10.

The University at Buffalo men’s team is ranked 15th in the Northeast Region, but I believe that we are much better than that. We finished 13th last year and have only gotten better as a team.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Evan Hilbert is a senior communications major at the University at Buffalo. He is a member of the cross country and track & field teams at UB and recently finished 13th at the MAC Cross Country Championships.

Hilbert co-hosts a podcast called “Take Talks” with a fellow journalism friend.

You can also find Evan on Instagram: evan_hilbert.