The goal is very clear this year for the Women's cross country team: qualify for the NCAA Div. III National Championship race. And with only one significant loss from the varsity squad, the Jumbos are primed and ready to shake up the NESCAC.
"Because of last year, people know what it takes to get there and that it's about November and not September," senior tri-captain Becca Ades said.
The Jumbos took sixth at the New England regional meet last November. They were seven points away from fifth place and qualifying for nationals in Eau Claire, Wis. Ades qualified individually for Nationals and was the Jumbos' lone representative at the meet.
Ades and sophomore Raquel Morgan lead this year's squad. The Jumbos lost tri-captain Katie Sheedy to graduation, but junior Sarah Crispin and sophomores Catherine Beck, Katy O'Brien, and Laura Walls return. Sophomore Anna Shih will likely take Sheedy's spot in the top seven.
Unlike the Jumbos, many competing schools lost several athletes to graduation. Middlebury, who finished first at regionals last season, graduated its top two runners while Williams, who took second at regionals, will be without five of its top seven from 2004. Wesleyan also suffered, losing three of its top five from last season.
"A lot of people graduated," Coach Kristin Morwick said. "People reloaded pretty well too [with freshmen]. It'll be hard to predict who the top five will be."
After coming up short in cross country, the women spent the indoor track season competing at a national level. Crispin was an All-American in the 800 meters, Beck qualified for and competed in the 5K, and O'Brien and Walls were members of the distance medley relay team that competed at Nationals for indoor track.
"The talent is there," Ades said. "It's obvious from all the indoor accomplishments everyone had. It's going to come down to each individual race and the end of the season. Who's healthy, who's ready to go. You can't predict now where we'll be in November."
"It's hard to predict just because it's so early in the season," Beck said. "We just need to take things one step at a time and try to stay healthy and happy."
The early races will show the team's capabilities, but the Jumbos' success depends on how they race post-season.
"We're right in the ballpark with [teams like] Colby, who should be anywhere from second to fourth in New England," Morwick said. "It'll all be who manages injury issues and who peaks at the right time. It should be stuff we can't control."
Besides the top seven, the Jumbos also return most of their top 15 runners. Despite losing graduates Emily Pfeil and Katie Mason, senior Arielle Aaronson, juniors Jenny Torpey, Angie Lee, Samantha Moland, and Julia Goldberg, and sophomores Ana Hoyos and Sarah Kalil return.
"Everyone has come in with a great attitude and is ready to work hard to do what needs to be done this season," Beck said.
Ades and Aaronson return from a spring semester abroad and are working to get back to mid-season form. Ades is nursing an IT band injury that kept her out of action in the spring.
"It hasn't made me stop any workouts [yet]," Ades said. "You have to play it by ear because it stopped me from running for three months. It feels fine so far."
With so many returnees, there is potential for the team to do damage in the NESCAC and the nation.
"I don't think we ever really raced to our potential last season," Morwick said. "You look at the track season that [these runners] had and are they capable of doing great things this year? Sure."
