The women's cross country team placed 12th of 35 teams at Saturday's Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship at the home course in Grafton. The race was an opportunity for new faces on the team to step into the limelight, as the more experienced runners were resting.
The Jumbos had their second seven finishers of the season run while the first seven gear up for next weekend's NCAA Regional Championship. The team was pitted against the top runners of teams such as Keene State and Trinity, which finished in second and third place in the meet respectively. Cross-country powerhouse Middlebury dominated the meet, winning by 88 points. The Panthers also ran half of their varsity.
Due to the tough competition, the Jumbos did not have any runners finish in the top 50. The first person to cross the line was sophomore Heidi Tyson, who finished in 57th place with a time of 20:55. Tyson has typically been the seventh or eighth team finisher for the Jumbos this season. Her performance in this year's race was not an improvement from last year's performance where she finished in 27th place with a time of 20:30.
The second place finisher for the team was senior Monika Navarro in 67th place with a time of 21:04. While Navarro did improve on her time from last year by seven seconds, she went from 51st place to 67th, indicating tougher competition this year. Sophomore Kathryn Hughes followed her less than a second later in 68th place. Like Navarro, she beat her time last year yet dropped from 63rd to 68th place. The race itself was faster as defending champion senior Barb Swallow of Springfield won the race for the second consecutive year, beating her time last year by more than a minute, with a time of 17:54.
Next to finish for the Jumbos was freshman Emily Craighead (73rd, 21:09). Craighead was a top freshman prospect for the team but was held back by foot and ankle injuries in the beginning of the season. She is well on her way to recovering however, finishing 38 seconds faster on Saturday than she did on the same course earlier this season at the Tufts Invitational.
Rounding out the seven competitors for the Jumbos were sophomore Sarah Foss (80th, 21:20), senior Emily Geston (92nd, 21:37), and sophomore Ashley Peterson (94th, 21:38). This was the first ECAC championship they competed in. All three finished right around the times they did racing the Grafton course earlier this season at the Tufts Invitational.
The Jumbos will now focus on this weekend's NCAA Regional Championships at UMass-Dartmouth. The women have increases the intensity of their training in preparation for this race. They will now cut back on their training in order to have a strong race.
"We are tapering down for probably the last team meet of the season," coach Kristin Morwick said.
This is the race that the women have been gearing up for all season. The Division III teams of the New England Region will be competing to win a berth in the National Championship. Only the top four teams in the race will go, in addition to the top nine individuals who are not from qualifying teams.
Many teams stand in the way of Tufts returning to compete at Nationals for the second consecutive year; they include Amherst, Brandeis, Colby, and Connecticut College.
"We are hoping to be in top ten and, if something really great happens, to finish higher," Morwick said. "Everyone must do their part and run a good race."
Tufts can send seven competitors to the qualifier, so the top seven finishers from the season will go. The group includes senior co-captain Leslie Crofton, senior co-captain Jennifer Edelmann, junior Heather Ballantyne, sophomore Mary Nodine, and freshmen Katie Mason, Lauren Caputo, and Lauren Dunn. The two alternates are Tyson and Craighead.
Regardless of how the team finishes, Crofton will most likely represent Tufts at the national competition as an individual qualifier. Ballantyne may also join her.
"Crofton has an excellent chance and Heather Ballantyne has a real good shot if she runs a good race," Morwick said.
