Women finish sixth amid tough competition

When the women's cross-country team traveled to Hanover, New Hampshire this past weekend for the Dartmouth Invitational, they did not take lofty expectations with them.

The Jumbos managed a sixth place finish out of seven teams with 166 points. Providence College ran away with the meet, ending with a low team point total of 34, and the winner of the Invitational Roisin McGettigan, who crossed the line in a time of 19:05.

At 3.3 miles, the course was slightly longer than the 3.1-mile distance that courses usually run. The competition also pit the Jumbos against six other teams, including Division I Providence College and Dartmouth, as well as the projected number one Division III team, Williams College.

"We went against some great Division I and II teams, and it's hard to compare Division I to Division III when priorities aren't the same," said senior Kristen Munson. "We didn't go there to win, we went to have a good race and get in a good training run, and we accomplished that."

Tufts had set its sights on a fellow Division III school, Keene State, which ended up one place ahead of the Jumbos, with 113 points. Keene State's front runner, Mary Proulx, placed second overall, propelling her team's standing. Unlike Keene State, the Jumbos do not have a standout, number one runner.

Junior Lauren Caputo was the first to cross the finish line for Tufts, coming in 31st in a time of 21:03 and in the process establishing herself as a leader on the course. Though Caputo has emerged as the possible number one Tufts runner, having placed first in both races this season, she is not sufficiently high in the standings to be considered the clear leader _ this weekend, the time difference between the top five funners was just 50 seconds and the difference between the first and seventh runner was one minute, 11 seconds..

But the team's coach, Kristen Morwick, would like to see that gap narrow. "We'd like to see that be closer to a minute and we need to move the pack up, but for now, its a good place to be," she said.

Without a star runner to provide leverage, the Jumbos engage in pack running as a racing strategy to improve in the standings. The pack is comprised of runners who finish close to each other and can feed off each other during the race. Part of the strategy involves using the pack to run together and break up other packs or get in front of individuals from rival teams who pose a threat in the standings.

"If we want to beat teams with strong front runners like Keene State, we need to use our pack to displace their third, fourth, and fifth runners, and get them behind our fifth girl," junior Ashley Peterson said. "There's not a huge gap between Lauren and the fifth girl, we just have to move up the pack."

Juniors Lauren Dunn (21:35) and Bethany Arrand (21:42) both had strong races and gave kicks in the last 1,000 meters as they finished 42nd and 47th respectively. Senior co-captain Mary Nodine (21:52) and Munson (21:54) rounded out the top five scoring runners, and ended two seconds apart in 49th and 50th places. Also aiding in the pack mobility were senior co-captain Sarah Foss (22:01), who had a stronger performance en route to 55th place, as well as freshman Rebecca Ades (22:14), who made her college debut at 57th place.

"We stayed together well as a team with the pack running well and keeping within sight of each other," Nodine said. "We were disappointed with how we ran the third mile because there was large hill at the end that we weren't prepared for. Overall we ran well as team but didn't run the course as well as we could have."

This weekend, the team will travel to the Purple Valley Classic, hosted by Williams. The classic is shaping into a clash of the titans match-up as it will include Williams and Middlebury, which placed first and second at last year's NCAA cross-country championships. As they go head to head with some of the toughest that Division III has to offer, the Jumbos look at the competition as an opportunity to fine-tune their pack against some truly worthy opponents.

"We have a way to go in learning how to race better, but that's what these meets are for," Nodine said. "As we move the pack up and stay close together we learn how to work together and run a more gutsy race."

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