Women's Cross Country takes second in season opener

The women's cross country team opened up its 2003 season with a second place finish on Saturday by hosting the annual Hayseed Classic at the Farm Course in Grafton. The race brought together seven Division III colleges from the area and was the first opportunity this year for competitors to stretch their legs in competition.

"This is our first home meet every year and it's usually less competitive for us," senior co-captain Lauren Dunn said. "We don't really gear up for this race. We race in uniform and it is official but really it is more of a training race for us. It's a good chance to see where we are at."

The Jumbos have traditionally fared well in this race, however this year it was Wheaton College's turn to dominate, snatching the first and second place spots at the finish line. Senior co-captain Lauren Caputo was the first to cross the line for the Brown and Blue, taking fifth place overall with a time of 20:01.67. She was 46 seconds behind the top finisher Kim Spence of Wheaton.

Keeping pace with Caputo was sophomore Becca Ades who came in seventh place overall (20:18.87).

"I thought it was a good first race," Ades said. "It was nice to be out on our home course. It was a good starting point."

The results of this race are reminiscent of last season with Caputo and Ades being the top two runners on the squad. In last year's NESCAC championship, it was Caputo and Ades racing into 19th and 29th place, respectively that paved the way for the Jumbo's seventh place finish in that meet last November.

Dunn rounded out the top five for Tufts with her ninth place finish (20:30.99). Junior Emily Pfiel finished 13th (20:51.28), and freshman Sarah Crispin took 20th place (21:11.46). Pfiel's standout performance was her first for Tufts since her 2002 surgery. The race was a good opportunity for all returning runners who had been on hiatus -- due to being injured or abroad -- to ascertain their fitness and speed.

"We appear to have a range of fitness levels right now," Dunn said. "We have more speed this year and we are really happy with both the quality of our returning runners and the excitement of the new runners to the team."

One thing that stood out for the team in this race was the tight pack of the next five runners to finish the race for the Jumbos. Only 30 seconds after freshman Jennifer Torpey crossed the line in 32nd place, senior Katie Mason came in at 39th. The Jumbos are going to work on strengthening this pack and getting people to work together during this season.

"We will be getting faster as we get deeper into the season," Ades said. "Some of us went conservative in the first mile. We didn't go into it with the complete race mentality."

Though Wheaton clearly dominated the race - taking four of the top ten spots -- the Jumbos can take satisfaction in edging out Bates, the only other NESCAC team at the Farm Course. The Bobcats came in fifth place in the NESCAC championships last year, however they were a step behind the Jumbos on Saturday, finishing third.

Katherine Creswell was the top runner for Bates on Saturday, coming in tenth (20:38.82) behind Caputo, Ades, and Dunn.

"Bates ran really well last year so it was nice to beat them even though we knew they didn't have everyone on their team running," Dunn said. "I think Bates will be a beatable team this year but they are looking like they will run well this season.

"This was a good opportunity to see what they have and it certainly helped our team to gain some confidence," he continued. "I think we will surprise a lot of the teams in the NESCAC this year."