It may have rained, but it certainly didn't pour on Saturday for the women's cross country team. The Jumbos rose to the occasion at the Plansky Invitational at Williams and gave the No. 1 nationally-ranked Ephs a close call. Tufts took second with 33 points, right on the heels of Williams, whose 23 points were enough to hold off the Jumbos on their home course.
"We had a really good showing against them," sophomore Catherine Beck said of her team's effort against the Ephs. "I think we really stepped it up and came together as a team. I was really impressed with the way we were all working together."
Beck once again led Tufts runners with her third place finish (15:06) on a 4K course. She stayed right with Willams' No. 2 runner, senior Michelle Rorke (second, 15:03). Last week at All-New Englands, Rorke and sophomores Elizabeth Gleason and Mallory Harlin all finished in front of Beck, with Rorke ahead of her by 13 seconds. This time around, Beck beat Gleason by seven seconds and Harlin by 28 seconds.
"I was pretty happy with my race," Beck said. "It's hard not to be happy when the team comes together so well."
Tufts put nine runners within 42 seconds of each other. Senior tri-captain Becca Ades kept progressing in her return from injury, taking fifth in 15:15. Ades, the Jumbos' top runner last season, has steadily improved with each race after a slow start this season.
"She's looking better and better every week and she's dominating in workouts," coach Kristen Morwick said. "I think by NESCAC's [on Oct. 29], she'll be back."
Ades was followed closely by freshman Evelyn Sharkey (sixth, 15:21) and sophomore Katy O'Brien (eighth, 15:24). Both runners had great races, especially considering that they are both more middle-distance runners and they were forced to race on a weather-beaten course known for its hills.
While the Ephs took the meet, Tufts had a strong showing, putting four straight runners across the line. Junior Sarah Crispin (11th, 15:36), senior Arielle Aaronson (12th, 15:42), junior Sam Moland (13th, 15:45) and freshman Susan Allegretti (14th, 15:46) worked well together throughout the race and finished as a pack. Freshman Katie Rizzolo was right on their heels, taking 16th at 15:48.
"We did really well," Aaronson, another of team's tri-captains, said. "The top ten or so were all together by the half-mile mark. We ran as a team for as long as we could."
Naturally, times will be closer together in a shorter race. But conditions were tough this weekend for the Jumbos as they drove three hours out to Williamstown to run a muddy course riddled with puddles. The course at Mt. Greylock High School also boasts a 400-meter hill at the end of the race and the first mile had to be altered due to the week's rain. Yet the team pulled together to run one of its better races of the season.
While the meet hosted seven teams, it was essentially a dual meet between Tufts and Williams, as teams like Stonehill (third, 115), Assumption (fourth, 275), and Hartwick (fifth, 374) lack the high-caliber programs to compete with the Williams and Tufts.
The team raced this weekend without sophomore Raquel Morgan, usually a team top-three finisher, who did not make the trip out to Williams.
"She's not the kind of the person that needs a ton of races to do well when it counts," Morwick said. "A 4K wouldn't have been her thing; she's better at the longer stuff."
Rizzolo did not turn out a great performance at Williams. Usually a top-three runner for Tufts, she was the Jumbos' ninth finisher on Saturday.
"She just had a rough morning," Beck said. "Everyone has some days where it just doesn't happen out there. It's good that she's getting it out of the way now."
Despite her sub-par race, the Jumbos have a solid top three in Beck, Rizzolo and Morgan. With Ades improving with each race, she could be finishing very close to the top three as the season progresses. And the team's top seven varies with each race, a sign of the depth of the roster. But youth and inexperience are once again recurring themes this year for the Jumbos, as eight of the team's top 12 runners are either freshmen or sophomores.
The team will take next weekend off to prepare for the NESCAC Championships at Wesleyan on Oct. 29. The league championship race will be a good indicator of how the competition will stack up at Regionals.
"There are a lot of different variables in there that could work in our favor or blow up," Morwick said. "If we could at some point put it together we could be a tough match for anyone, including Williams."
