The women's cross-country team finished 23rd out of 35 schools at the New England Championships at Franklin Park on Friday, in a race which included squads from all three divisions. The Jumbos hoped to remain competitive with Division III rivals but finished seventh among NESCAC teams (574 points).
The top NESCAC finisher was Middlebury, who finished second overall with 102 points, 56 behind Providence College. The always-competitive Williams (239) and Amherst (251) teams finished sixth and seventh respectively.
Sophomore Lauren Caputo crossed the line first for Tufts with her best team finish of the year. Senior co-captain Heather Ballantyne was the top finisher in the first three races of the season, and sophomore Lauren Dunn pulled out a narrow victory at Williams on Oct. 5 to break Ballantyne's streak. Caputo finished 94th overall with a time of 19:41, averaging 6:19 a mile.
Although Ballantyne was not the top finisher for the team, she was second, placing 103rd overall crossing the line at the 19:48 mark. Junior Aly White placed 116th with a time of 19:56. White continues to improve, finding herself in the top three Jumbos for the last two races.
Sophomore Lauren Dunn, who won the Fall Foliage Frolic at Williams, slipped to fourth on the team. She finished 135th with a time of 20:07.
"I didn't feel like I ran to par," Dunn said of her performance. "I did not do what was needed for the team. I was overwhelmed by the size of the meet. I let the race carry me, and I was not running my race."
While there were some promising individual performances, the team's finish was lackluster.
"We had a good performance individually, but we can't get comfortable where we are." Dunn said. "It was an indicator on where everyone else is and the kind of work we have to do."
Finishing 138th, rounding out the scorers for the team was junior Heidi Tyson. She crossed the line one second off Dunn's pace at 20:08. Tyson has had good performances as of late, continuing to score points for the team.
The top five of this race ran 27 seconds apart at Franklin, a far cry from the nine seconds that separated those same positions at the Fall Foliage Frolic. "We ran okay as a pack," Dunn said. "Our top five was close for most of the race, but in the last minute we lost that pack."
Since the meet has such a large number of participants, each team is only allowed to race seven members, and the top five scoring points for the team. The other two runners in the race for the Jumbos were sophomore Katie Mason, who finished 149th with a time of 20:16 and averaged 6:30 a mile, and freshman Rachel Brandenberg, who placed 185th with a time of 20:49. Brandenberg continues to improve on her finishing times, even though she only practices half as much as the rest of the team because of a stress fracture she sustained last summer.
The Jumbos have a tough schedule ahead of them as they approach the championship races. They have this week off in preparation for the NESCAC Championships that are held at Bowdoin on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 12 p.m. The season does not get any easier after that, as the squad will travel to Williams on Saturday, Nov. 3 for the ECAC Championships.
"We need to go into races with more confidence to stick together," Dunn said. "This last meet meant nothing; we are looking forward to the NESCAC's and ECAC's.
