“Lune de Miel,” a poem by T.S. Eliot, describes the end of a honeymoon marked by a return to “Terre Haute,” or “high ground.” The Washington cross-country team’s season honeymoon is over, and it ended on its own return to Terre Haute, Ind., for the national championship meet.

In some ways, this season has felt like parsing a modernist’s poem. It has been difficult, rewarding, and full of paradoxical complexities.

Monday at the national championship meet, the Villanova women were the best team on the field, and it would have taken an epic effort to upend them. Some, including The Seattle Times, reported that “the Washington women’s cross-country team needed one more All-American runner to repeat as national champions.”

That’s simply not the case, though.

That last “All-American runner” would have had to finish seventh, one spot behind Villanova’s top runner. Even then, the Huskies would have barely won 89-90 after factoring in runner displacement. Considering that the UW’s fifth runner on Monday finished in 109th place, that would have been a jump of at least 102 places and 90 seconds. That’s not a reasonable expectation. The Huskies didn’t lose the championship; the Wildcats simply won it.

The men had a more consternating experience. They put forward an incredible performance at West Regionals by placing fourth, only eight points behind Oregon. At nationals, however, the Ducks came out firing on all cylinders and managed a close second to team champion Oklahoma State. The Huskies’ engine backfired as they sputtered their way to an 18th-place finish, well short of their top-10 goal and 15th-place ranking entering the meet.

In some ways, though, the season must be viewed as a success. The women were third in the nation, a finish that would have brought euphoria if not for the heightened expectations after 2008’s championship.

In addition, they’ll graduate only one of their top 10 runners. Kendra Schaaf emerged as one of the early favorites to win the individual title next year after narrowly missing the crown in a sprint finish with Illinois’ Angela Bizzarri.

It’s simplistic to look at what happened on Monday as the be-all-end-all of the season. Each workout and race that preceded it was an investment in the considerable talent on the team.

The championship race itself will serve as motivation for the year to come. Next year will be the final year for Mel Lawrence, Lauren Saylor, Kailey Campbell and Kenna Patrick. All of these women have played major roles in elevating the UW’s team to national prominence.

Perhaps that, if nothing else, is the true value taken from this season. Despite what the result sheet says, the men believe that they are a top-10 caliber team. The women know that on another day they could have been the champs. The runners hold themselves up to these standards, and train and live accordingly. That dedication and self-assurance will pay off in the long run.

For now, the athletes have a much-deserved break before they begin training for the indoor-track season in the winter. Indoor races will be held in the basilica of amateurism, the UW’s Dempsey Indoor Complex, in which the marquee runners cause the wind to whirl.

This marks the end of the honeymoon for the UW’s cross-country programs. Continued excellence will come as a result of hard work and daily commitment to each other. Armed with this, they’ll look to gain the title back next year and return to that high ground atop the podium at Terre Haute.

Reach reporter Zachary Gussin at sports@dailyuw.com.