Jumbos aim for national berth

Depending on results at the Division III New England meet this weekend, members of the women's cross country team may hop a plane to Indiana for Nationals next week--or they may hang up their racing flats for the season by Saturday afternoon.

The top five squads at the Div. III meet in Cumberland, Maine, will qualify as a team for NCAA's, to be held next Saturday, November 22, at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.

While Tufts still has a shot at capturing the fifth New England team spot at nationals, the best chance of seeing a lady Jumbo race in Hanover lies in senior tri-captain Lauren Caputo, who stands in good position to qualify as an individual. Sophomore Becca Ades and senior tri-captain Lauren Dunn could potentially win individual berths at the meet also, since nine runners who are not on the top five New England teams will proceed to nationals without their teammates.

Caputo has been Tufts' top finisher in all but one meet this season, and was recently named to the NESCAC All-Conference second team. That honor was bestowed upon her for placing 12th at the conference meet two weeks ago, an impressive feat considering the overwhelming strength of the NESCAC league. According to the most recent national rankings, four NESCAC teams -- Middlebury, Amherst, Williams, and Trinity -- are among the top five teams in the country.

"New England on the national scene is exceptional," coach Kristen Morwick said.

The region is such a powerhouse of women's cross country that it is granted more team and individual national berths than any other. Morwick suggested that the strength of the region could further help the Jumbos if they make it to Indiana.

"We wouldn't be freaked out by the best teams because we already race them every week," Morwick said.

Saturday, Tufts' closest competition should be Wesleyan and Bowdoin, who placed fifth and sixth at the NESCAC meet, just ahead of the seventh-place Jumbos. Bowdoin only beat Tufts by seven points though, and if each Jumbo performs up to her full potential -- which was not entirely the case at NESCAC's -- the Polar Bears should be a feasible target at Division III's.

"I think we can get Bowdoin," Morwick said. "Wesleyan is a different story. We'd have to race great and catch them by surprise."

The Wesleyan Cardinals are led by junior All-American Courtney Quirin, whose second-place finish at NESCAC's makes her the sole Wesleyan runner that Caputo did not beat. This weekend, Morwick hopes that Caputo can land herself in the top 15, and that Ades and Dunn can finish in the top 30.

"If we can do that, then the team has a great shot, but only if the four to five runners are in the 40s," Morwick said. "Each person has an individual assignment, and if they can stick to that, we'll do really well as a team."

Junior Emily Pfeil, freshmen Sarah Crispin and Sam Moland, and junior Katie Sheedy will race in Tufts' fourth through seventh slots, respectively. Crispin, a native of Auburn, Maine, will be racing on the same course where she competed throughout high school. Morwick hopes that this advantage could elicit a stellar performance from Tufts' top freshman.

"She loves the course, so I think she could be our secret weapon," Morwick said.

Dunn also expressed confidence in Crispin, commenting that she "still [has] a lot left in her legs, so she could have a great race."

Overall, Dunn called the Tufts contingent for Div. III's a "solid seven."

"We just need to stay healthy and put as many people into the [All-New England] top 35 as we possibly can," Dunn said.

"We want to support everyone's individual goals along with our team goal of getting to nationals," Dunn added.

Any national qualification this weekend would mean the first appearance of a Tufts woman at NCAA's since 2000, when Leslie Crofton (LA '01) took fifth in the country. Crofton's is the all-time best performance of any Tufts cross country runner, male or female, at Nationals.