The women's cross-country team ran into some difficulty at Friday's New England Collegiate Cross Country Championships. The Jumbos placed 22nd out of 36 teams in the race, which pitted Tufts against some of the toughest competition it has faced this season. In fact, only one Tufts runner was able to place in the top hundred in the varsity race.
Senior co-captain Leslie Crofton, after taking a week off, placed 36th out of 254 competitors with a time of 18:49 and an average mile of 6:02. Just three weeks earlier, running on the same Franklin Park Course, Crofton finished with a time of 18:13 and an average mile of 5:50.
"It was a messy, compact meet with 300 runners," coach Kristen Morwick said. "It was a different mentality and a tougher race for her to control."
The racing conditions, including the heat, may have had a huge impact on the team. Most of the runners' times dropped from the race three weeks earlier, a race with only 179 runners and less fierce competition. Junior Heather Ballantyne, consistently the Jumbos second place finisher this season, came in next at 106th place with a time of 19:39. Three weeks ago, she finished in 19:23.
However, not all of the Jumbos were feeling the effects of the race conditions. Senior co-captain Jennifer Edelmann stepped it up and finished third for the team in 149th place with a time of 20:06 and an average mile of 6:27. She beat her time three weeks ago by 31 seconds.
"Jen ran a great race," Morwick said. "She's coming off being anemic and running more confidently now."
With the field so large, Tufts could only run its top seven runners in the varsity race. Morwick decided to choose the seven who have placed in the top five for the team at some point this season. Sophomore Mary Nodine filled in the fourth spot for the team, crossing the line in 162nd place
(20:13). Rounding out the seven were the three freshmen who have stood out this season as scorers. Katie Mason (20:27), Lauren Caputo (20:33), and Lauren Dunn (20:43) finished in 184th, 193rd, and 200th respectively.
However, these three are not the only freshmen making their mark. In the women's open race, freshman Emily Craighead crossed the line in 20:30 in 55th place. This time would have been fast enough to finish in the sixth spot on the varsity squad. Like Edelmann, Craighead also improved on her time from three weeks ago finishing the race 20 seconds faster.
Sophomore Heidi Tyson also ran in the women's open race and finished right behind Craighead in 56th place with a time of 20:31. She would have been the seventh finisher for the Jumbos.
Although the Jumbos placed 22nd out of 36 teams, they placed seventh out of the eleven NESCAC teams competing. This fact is alarming since only the top four teams in the conference will advance to Nationals. Middlebury and Williams have dominated the races thus far and are almost assured the first and second spots. Amherst, a team the Jumbos were originally targeting, is looking stronger with each race. On Friday, they finished 13th (and 202 points ahead of Tufts) despite running with two of their top five hurt.
"Amherst is well out of our reach," Morwick said.
The Jumbos must now compete with Brandeis, Colby, and Connecticut College for the fourth spot. Next week's NESCAC Championships at Amherst will give a good indication of how Tufts' chances look. Last year, at the New England Collegiate Cross Country championship, the Jumbos finished behind Amherst, Colby, and Brandeis. The team stepped it up for Regionals, however, and was able to win a berth in Nationals finishing in third place, ahead of these three teams.
"This race isn't really indicative of where we stand," Morwick said. "It just shows the youth of our team. We are still training hard through the week. We are focusing on the regional qualifiers."
The women are off this weekend but will be training hard through the next two weeks. While the team will run in the NESCAC championships on Saturday, October 28, it will really step it up for the regional qualifiers.
"That race," Morwick said, "is the one that counts."
