Battling sickness, heat, a tough course and one of the best teams in the country, the women's cross country team used grit and depth to place second at the Jumbo Invitational on Saturday in Grafton.
Junior Becca Ades paced the Jumbos in the 6 km with a sixth place finish (23:10), and sophomore Raquel Morgan had a strong race to finish tenth (23:48).
Amherst took first, followed distantly by the Jumbos and Trinity. Freshmen Katy O'Brien (15th, 24:03), Anna Shih (17th, 24:05) and Catherine Beck (19th, 24:09) followed Morgan and Ades in a close pack as senior captains Katie Mason (24th, 24:32) and Katie Sheedy (27th, 24:44) rounded out the Jumbos' top seven.
The Tufts pack, which split in 31 seconds last week at the 4k at McGill, stretched out on the 6 km course to 1:34.
The Jumbos battled NESCAC rivals Amherst and Trinity on a sultry day at the Tufts Farm Course at the Grafton campus, known throughout New England for its uneven footing and tough hills.
The course provides very little shade for runners who must consequently battle the sun as well as the opposition.
"[The women] hate it, which is why we don't practice there and avoid racing there," coach Kristen Morwick said. Morwick commented that many runners dropped out of the race in the middle, exhausted from the course and the weather.
Ades was unaffected by the course and weather conditions, however, running a conservative race early and keeping pace with Amherst and Trinity. By the middle of the race, she found herself running alone, a difficult position for a cross country runner.
"She was in No Man's Land. She ran most of that race by herself," Morwick said.
Undeterred, Ades, who "loves" Grafton, improved her time on the course from last season by twenty seconds.
"I felt really good this week," Ades said. "It is good for me to go out slow. I can work from behind better."
Ades and the rest of the Jumbos struggled to keep pace with Amherst, who scored a mere 27 points to the Jumbos' 67. The Lord Jeffs took three out of the top four spots as their top runner, senior Carter Hamill, ran a blistering pace and shattered Grafton's course record with a 21:29, beating the next closest runner (her teammate, sophomore Shauneen Garra-han) by over a minute.
"She's legit. She's far and away the best runner in New England," Morwick said of Hamill, who last track season won the NCAA Championship in the 10 km and finished second in the 5 km.
Hamill and the Jeffs put nine runners across the finish line before the Jumbos' seventh runner, Katie Sheedy, and will be a viable contender for the NCAA Div. III Cross Country Champ-ionship this season.
"I think they're one of top two teams in the country," Morwick said. "We're not even close to that yet."
Although the team could not catch Amherst, the Jumbos did hold off a strong challenge from Trinity, who despite losing four seniors from last season still has a solid team.
"Tufts has an outstanding team this year and we're just trying to close the gap," Trinity coach George Suitor said. "The Tufts course is a very hard course, and I was very pleased with the way we ran Saturday."
Morwick was also very pleased with her team's performance, as many of the team members battled sickness this week along with the adjustment to the longer 6 km race.
Some of the women ran in spite of head colds, including Beck, who missed practice time this week, and sophomore Sarah Crispin (30th, 24:51), who had finished in the Jumbos top seven the last two weeks but was the team's eighth runner this week.
Sophomore Jenny Torpey (34th, 25:01) and junior Arielle Aaronsen (35th, 25:03) followed Crispin closely throughout the race to form a strong middle pack.
O'Brien, who beat Ades last week at McGill, also struggled through the race, finishing almost a minute behind Ades at Grafton.
"People are tired," Mason said. "These are our hardest weeks of training. I think it's catching up with us a little bit."
Other runners stepped to lead the Jumbos in the second-place effort. As opposed to two weeks ago at Connecticut College, Shih went from seventh on the team to fourth, Mason from tenth to sixth and Morgan moved to second place, up from fourth.
"[Morgan] had a really good race. I haven't seen her run that well all season. She went out there and tried to stick with Becca," Mason said.
"It takes the pressure off of the same people having to be great every week," Morwick said. "And as I said before, our top seven is going to be different every week."
Despite the loss to Amherst, beating Trinity and a host of Div. II and Div. III schools without great performances from her top runners left Morwick feeling positive.
"It was kind of a mixed bag," Morwick said. "If we can be down a few people and still have people to back it up, it's nice."
News and Notes: At the Purple Valley Classic at NESCAC rival Williams, Williams put nine runners under 20 minutes, scoring 21 points and crushing the next closest team, Middlebury, another NESCAC rival, by 27 ... Among those dropping out during the Grafton race was freshman Laura Walls, who in the past two weeks has been consistent in the Jumbos top pack ... Senior captain Emily Pfeil did not race due to injury and sickness. She hopes to return in two weeks as the team heads to Franklin Park for the All-New England Champion-ship on Oct. 8 ... The Jumbos will not be racing this weekend.
