Despite some frustrating conditions for the Women's cross country team at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, the Tufts runners turned out a handful of solid performances. The squad raced to a third-place finish on Saturday in the Varsity race, and had several freshmen shine in the sub-varsity race.
"There wasn't anything spectacular happening in either [race]," Coach Kristin Morwick said. "The course was pretty sloppy so we weren't expecting super-fast times."
Conditions were less than ideal for competitors at the southeastern Massachusetts school. Seasonal wear-and-tear on the course, combined with recent rain from Tropical Storm Ophelia, tore up the grass leaving longs stretches of mud. The humidity level was high despite the overcast morning, making for a muddy, sticky race.
Sophomore Catherine Beck led the way for the Jumbos, who, under Morwick's direction worked as a pack through the first mile of the race. Beck held back for the first mile and opened up as the race progressed, finishing in fourth place with a time of 18:40.
"She races a smart race and I think she's going to continue to improve and be near the top in New England," Morwick said.
The focus on pack running helped the Jumbos, as their second through sixth runners crossed the line within 18 seconds of each other. Sophomore Katy O'Brien (21st, 19:30) was followed closely by junior Sarah Crispin (29th, 19:41), senior Becca Ades (31st, 19:44), sophomore Anna Shih (37th, 19:46), and senior Arielle Aaronson (39th, 19:48).
"It was a pretty flat course, so we tried to run as two groups in the beginning," junior tri-captain Jenny Torpey said. "We actually all finished really close to each other, which was very good."
Torpey (79th, 20:26) worked with sophomore Laura Walls (71st, 20:20) to round out the Jumbo Varsity squad. Crispin turned in a surprising race to take third on the team despite battling sickness all week and a fever at start time.
Shih also had a good day for Tufts with her performance, taking fifth on the team.
"Anna had a great race," Morwick said. "I thought she was pretty conservative in the beginning and I thought she had a ton left."
NESCAC teams dominated the race on Saturday, placing five teams in the top seven spots. Colby captured the top spot with 43 points, Amherst finished second with 88 points, and the Jumbos' 112 points put them just in front of Conn. College (163 points) and Trinity (7th, 241 points).
While the third-place finish is a good sign, the team is not dwelling on early-season results, especially considering sophomore Raquel Morgan was given the day off to rest and the team split their squad, letting their freshmen run in the sub-varsity race.
"We put the freshmen in the open race to give them a break and just be toward the front of the race. They all were really strong just pushing each other," Torpey said.
Freshman Katie Rizzolo, who was second on the team for the Jumbos last weekend at the Conn. College Invitational, took first in the sub-varsity race with a time of 19:25. Her race would have been good enough for second again this weekend among the varsity runners.
She was followed by a pack of classmates, as freshmen Susan Allegretti (4th, 19:42), Evelyn Sharkey (5th, 19:44), Morgan Medders (10th, 20:10), and Veronica Jackson (15th, 20:26) stayed close together to form a solid group for the Jumbos.
This weekend, Tufts will head to Grafton for the Jumbo Invitational, the only home meet of the season. The course is one of the few 6k races that the team runs and is known for its killer hills. Consequently, a few of the middle-distance runners, like Crispin, O'Brien, and Shih, will not race on Saturday.
"We have a really long season," Torpey said. "Grafton is one of our toughest courses. It's kind of important to give people a break mentally and physically so we can be stronger in the more competitive meets."
The other Jumbos will try to continue with the strategy of pack running that has worked well up to this point.
"We're going to go out hard because it's our home course," Torpey said. "For some people it's going to be their first 6k race. It's a pretty hilly course, so we're probably going to have to work together again."
Morwick, like her team, concedes that November is more important than these early races.
"It's basically four weeks of hard running in September," Morwick said. "There's no point in doing that if November is what we're shooting for."
Resting people like she plans to do this weekend is necessary to keep the team fresh for the postseason races. Those races could mean qualifying for a spot at the National Championship race at Ohio Wesleyan in November, an honor that the Jumbos missed last season by only a few points as a team.
"Hopefully we won't be just hanging on for that final spot," Morwick said. "We'll be gunning for [Nationals]."
