The women's cross country team took first place in Maine thispast weekend at the Twin Brooks Invitational. Junior Becca Ades rana personal best time of 22:56 to finish first on the Tufts squadand take second place overall in the race.
"Becca had a great performance. She came in second in the raceand she just went after it," senior tri-captain Katie Mason (41st,25:10) said.
Leading the race with 1200 meters to go, Ades looked poised towin the meet. But Trinity's Chrissy Kane, a senior who took firstlast year at Twin Brooks, caught the junior and dropped her careerbest at Twin Brooks by six seconds.
"Chrissy had a really strong kick at the end. Becca still had agood kick. I think [Becca] ran a smart race," assistant coach LizBrown said. "It would have been nice if she had won, but she had areally good time."
The Jumbos turned in a great team performance with their topseven runners all finishing in the top 20. Freshman Katy O'Brienplaced 5th (23:25), followed by sophomore Raquel Morgan in 9th(23:41). Freshmen Laura Walls (12th, 23:51) and Catherine Beck(14th, 23:58) were close behind, and the duo of sophomore SarahCrispin (17th, 24:12) and senior Katie Sheedy (19th, 24:210) workedtogether again to round out the Jumbos' top seven.
The team split of 1:24 at Twin Brooks was ten seconds betterthan the Jumbos' last split on a six kilometer course - achieved atthe Jumbo Invitational on Sept. 25. The improvement came in spiteof a sub-par finish by freshman Anna Shih (27th, 24:47), who hasbeen consistently among the top seven Jumbos this season.
"They started out all in a pack together. Around the mile markthey had a really great pack up in front. They really worked wellas a team this race," Brown said of the Tufts team. "They wereawfully close at the beginning. That's a really good time split ona 6k."
A strong team split is encouraging for the Jumbos, especiallysince the team will return to Twin Brooks in Cumberland, Maine inless than a month for the Div. III New England RegionalChampionships. The top five teams at the Regional meet will qualifyfor the National meet in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
"We really packed it in and worked together. That's somethingthat we're working on," Mason said. "Hopefully we can put togethera race like this weekend for the qualifying race. I think it was areally great race in how we raced as a team."
O'Brien, who has struggled with sickness and heat-related issuesin the Jumbos' last two races, returned to form with a fifth placefinish that was good enough for second place on the team. Shebenefited from the breezy, cooler autumn weather on Saturday.
"It's kind of at that point in the season where a lot of peoplewho have been feeling tired are getting back. It was good to see[O'Brien] kind of pull out a good race where she hasn't done sowell the past couple of weeks," Mason said. "It's good for hermentally to see herself doing well and to get more confidence forfuture races because she's definitely capable of it."
The underclassmen, who have been the story for the Jumbos allseason, led the women once again with three freshmen and sophomoresin the top five. If Shih and Crispin run well at the NESCACChampionship, the Jumbos could realistically send four freshmen andtwo sophomores to Regionals along with Ades.
"They've looked strong all season. For the freshmen coming in,they've been really great about their training, they've been layingoff when they need to," Brown said. "They've done well in thebigger meets. This past meet they did well. And last week atFranklin Park the underclassmen ran well against a lot of Div. Ischools."
With youth comes inexperience and, although very talented, theJumbos could come up short in qualifying for Nationals due toinexperience under pressure.
"That's definitely a concern of ours. These girls are great.They're talented. They're really helping our team. But they'refreshmen," Mason said. "That's nerve-wracking for a bunch of usolder runners. It's kind of nerve-wracking since we have such agreat shot this year at really doing well.
"I'm going to be optimistic and realistic about it. I thinkthese girls can do it. I'm feeling good about it," Mason said.
"If they just continue doing what they're doing, we should befine," Brown said.
News and Notes: Junior Arielle Aaronson (22nd, 24:40) andsophomore Jenny Torpey (26th, 24:46) also ran well for the Jumbos... NESCAC Watch - Williams put eight runners within 48 seconds towin the 4k Tony Plansky Invitational at home while Amherst took theweek off. The Middlebury women took third at the AlbanyInvitational ... The Jumbos will take this weekend off and spendthese two weeks training for the NESCAC Championship race onOctober 30th at College.
