The three Ms — Martin, Meredith and Margo — all sophomores, have carried Syracuse through the postseason and into the final test of the year: the NCAA championship this Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind.

Martin Hehir has been the top finisher for the No. 7 men in both the Atlantic Coast Conference championships and the Northeast Regional championships, while Margo Malone and Meredith Speakman have finished first and second on the team, respectively, in each of the No. 21 women’s postseason meets.

All three runners were recently named to the Northeast All-Region team after their Top-25 finishes last Friday. Hehir finished third overall on the men’s side, while Malone and Speakman finished 11th and 19th, respectively, for the women.

“This is all our second year competing, and I think the first year is about learning the ropes,” Hehir said. “Our class is coming into its own.”

Twelve of the 16 top finishers for Syracuse in its meets this year have been from this class. Malone has five top finishes, Hehir has four, Angelica Peck has two and Juris Silenieks has one.

Redshirt seniors Griff Graves, Robert Molke and Joseph Whelan, who have five top 10 finishes between them, haven’t combined to win a single race this year.

Instead, the older runners have provided strong off-the-course leadership while the sophomores have stepped up their performance on the course — a healthy balance that has led both teams to the final meet of the season.

“It’s not necessarily the norm,” assistant coach Adam Smith said. “Usually you look to the upperclassmen to take that ownership. We’ve been fortunate to have younger guys step up and have those big-time roles, and some really good upperclassmen are leaders in their own way.”

Both Hehir and Speakman stressed that after freshman year, everyone blends in together, even if the sophomores are the ones leading the pack over the elder runners.

“It’s a two-way thing,” Hehir said. “We just do what the older guys do and they hopefully do what we’re doing.”

Although Malone has undoubtedly been Syracuse’s top runner all year, Speakman has come into her own toward the end of the season. In addition to her two strong postseason performances, she finished third for the Orange at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, which took place during the week that the women skyrocketed into the national rankings.

“Both Meredith and Margo put in a really good last 8-10 months,” Smith said. “They had the goal last year when they didn’t make it to nationals, that this year was going to be the year.”

Now that both the men and women’s teams are there thanks in most part to this talented class, their sights are set on one thing: shocking the country.

“Even though we’ve run well, we’re still underdogs,” Hehir said. “So we’d love to go out there and prove everyone wrong.”

The sophomore class has SU primed to do just that.

“This is what we train for,” Smith said. “This is what all the workouts, summer mileage, and blood, sweat, and tears comes to.”

Published on November 21, 2013 at 1:31 am

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman