With the outdoor track and field season quiet until next spring, the collegiate cross country season roars into championship mode.
At stake are national titles, bragging rights, rivalries settled (or extended) and the yearly crop of breakout stars who offer a glimpse of the future of the sport far down the line. But at its core, cross country is plainly about the grit that simply doesn't exist on the track or road. It’s very much about coming out of a competition feeling worn, with traces of dirt from the terrain as a birthright or sorts and surging through the course no matter the conditions.
At the NCAA Division I Northeast Region Cross Country Championships in Hopkinton, New Hampshire last Saturday, photographer Justin Sorensen explored the grit as as tale of battling for team championships and a shot at a national title was on full display. Hofstra's Fredrick Kipkosgei and Army's Charlotte Richman would grab top honors as the top teams that advanced gather in Columbia, Missouri this Saturday for a final showdown.