An entire season of hard work comes down to one day for the women's cross country team. A trip to nationals hangs in the balance as the team travels to Springfield for the Division III New England Regional Championship, where the top five teams will earn a spot to go to Nationals at Ohio Wesleyan.
Tufts will send senior Becca Ades, juniors Raquel Morgan and Sarah Crispin, sophomores Catherine Beck and Katy O'Brien, and freshmen Katie Rizzolo and Evelyn Sharkey to the line tomorrow to compete for a national championship bid. Coach Kristen Morwick has confidence in her squad but says she's worried about how midterms in the past week might have affected the runners.
"They're physically ready to run," Morwick said. "I just hope the tough week of academics didn't take its toll."
The NESCAC is renowned for being the toughest division for cross country in the New England region as well as the rest of the nation and the NESCAC Championship is usually a good predictor for how teams will fare at Regionals. Two weeks ago at NESCAC's, which took place at Wesleyan University, the Jumbos took fourth but narrowly missed out on third place. A similar performance this weekend will mean that Tufts will be headed out to Ohio.
"We would like to take third but we'll be happy with fourth or fifth," Morwick said. "We just want to get on the plane."
The top two spots will likely be occupied by Williams and Amherst, who, throughout the season, have consistently been the best two teams in NESCAC. The primary competition for the Jumbos, according to Morwick, will come from Colby, Middlebury, Wesleyan and Wellesley. It will be five teams competing for three spots, although the chances of Wesleyan and Wellesley cracking the top five not very likely.
At NESCAC's two weeks ago, the Jumbos finished 12 points off of Colby and 29 points in front of Middlebury. Wesleyan was a distant 68 points behind. The Jumbos last faced Wellesley at All-New England's on Oct. 8 at Franklin Park, beating the Blue by 96 points at the largest meet of the season. Two weeks earlier, Wellesley was much closer, finishing 10 points behind Tufts at the smaller Jumbo Invitational.
"I know that we'll be racing against some good teams, but we did well against them at NESCAC's and I have confidence that we will do well again," Crispin said.
The Jumbos will have to run as a solid pack if they are going to be competitive. Although Ades and Beck will be out in front on Saturday, the two are not on the level of Shauneen Garrahan (Amherst) and Caroline Cretti (Williams) and cannot guarantee a particularly low scoring runner in the top five.
"Those low numbers mean a lot more at a meet like this," Morwick said. "We're more of a pack-running team. We don't have that superstar out front."
Two weeks ago at NESCAC's, the Jumbos put their top five runners across the line within 43 seconds of each other. With more teams competing in the race at Regionals, a tight pack will be even more integral to the team's score.
"We're going to have to count on everybody running together and being right out front," Morwick said.
Morgan believes that if each runner goes out and has an individual strong race, Tufts should have no problem securing a nationals spot.
"Everyone needs to go into the race with their own strategies for victory," Morgan said. "I think if [Beck] runs her race, and [Ades] runs her race, and [O'Brien] runs her race, and I run my race, and so on...we will be fine as a team. The preconditions are set. We're ready for this."
Based on how the team performed last weekend and how they have raced all season, finishing in the top five is more of a realistic expectation rather than a pipe dream, and the team expects to be in Ohio next weekend.
"I never like to make assumptions," Crispin said. "But every single person on this team is going to run like they plan on earning a spot to nationals. And that's all that matters."
Last season, the top two finishing teams in NESCAC, Middlebury and Williams, went on to take the top two places at nationals at Eau Claire, Wis., demonstrating the dominance of the NESCAC in women's cross country. A bid to nationals for Tufts should also imply a solid showing at nationals simply based on the competition the Jumbos face every meet.
"If we get there, I think New England is so strong that we should be in the top 10 anyway with the talent we have," Morwick said.
