Caputo to race at Nationals

At the Div. III regional meet on Saturday, women's cross country tri-captain Lauren Caputo earned the opportunity to extend what has already been a stellar senior campaign by another week. And this time, she will be competing at the highest level possible--Nationals. Caputo will be the first Tufts woman to run at Nationals since 2000, when Leslie Crofton was fifth in the country.

Caputo will be the sole representative of the women's squad at the NCAA meet, to be held next Saturday at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. Many of Caputo's competitors will be familiar faces, as all five New England teams to qualify -- Middlebury, Williams, Amherst, Trinity, and Bowdoin--hail from the powerhouse NESCAC league.

At the NE Div. III meet in Cumberland, Maine Saturday, Caputo placed 20th overall, in 23 minutes, five seconds. The top nine individuals not on a qualifying team earned a trip to Nationals, and Caputo was fifth among this group. Sophomore Becca Ades barely missed NCAA's, as she was the tenth finisher not associated with a top-five team. Ades completed the 6K course in 23:23, good for 31st overall. Both she and Caputo earned All-New England honors.

"Becca deserves to be going to Nationals, but there isn't anyone on this team who's disappointed in her," senior tri-captain Katie Higley said. "She missed by four seconds and one place, and she ran a gutsy race. She was very strong from the beginning."

The entire pack went out extremely fast - a factor that Higley said may have thrown off some Tufts runners and many of their competitors as well.

"Some people weren't mentally prepared for it," Higley said. "It's hard to change your racing strategy in the middle of the race."

As a team, Tufts placed ninth, with 269 points. Entering the meet, the Jumbos had an outside chance of placing fifth and taking their entire squad to Nationals, but they were well aware that such a feat would be difficult.

"We knew going in that it'd be an uphill struggle to overcome some of the great competition out there," senior tri-captain Lauren Dunn said.

Unfortunately for Tufts, their performances on Saturday were a mixed bag, and in the face of some squads' performing at peak level, the Jumbos fell short of their team goal.

"Some of us had a good race and some of us didn't, so that hurt us," Dunn said. "It also hurt us that some teams came out really strong at the end [of the season] and surprised us."

Keene State's eighth-place finish (253 points) was one surprise. The Owls were not even ranked in the NE Div. III top ten prior to this weekend. Bowdoin's fifth-place finish was also somewhat unexpected.

"We saw them at NESCAC's and they weren't that strong," Dunn said. "But Saturday they had their top three in front of our number one, which didn't happen all season."

Although the Jumbos may not be entirely satisfied with Div. IIIs, the team nonetheless posted some exciting results. Freshman Sarah Crispin, who was usually Tufts' fifth or sixth runner this season, was the third Jumbo to cross the line, placing 57th overall, in 24:07--about 40 seconds faster than her previous best on the course.

"She was fired up all week, I knew she was going to do something big," Higley said. "Sarah was so smart about her race and so confident. She was phenomenal."

Among Tufts' upperclassmen, Dunn was fourth for the Jumbos, in a time of 24:28, good for 73rd. Junior Emily Pfeil was the fifth and final Tufts scorer, in 87th place (24:39). Junior Katie Sheedy was 116th in 25:14, and freshman Sam Moland was 127th in 25:25.

Middlebury, the top-ranked team in the nation, won with 51 points, followed by defending-national champions Williams, who tallied 77. Williams boasted the top finisher, sophomore Caroline Cretti, who set a course record (21:51) and defended her regional title.

Despite falling short of a team trip to Nationals, Higley said that the Jumbos are pleased with their season as a whole.

"We're sad and frustrated that we didn't put it together, but that would have been icing on the cake," Higley said. "We already had an amazing season."

"We made some big strides as a team this season and had some great performances," Dunn reiterated. "[Caputo] made it to Nationals and that's what we needed her to do."