This season the goal of the women's cross country team was "Ohio or Bust," and the Buckeye State is just where the Jumbos find themselves on the final weekend of the season. Tufts will compete for a national title at the NCAA Championship as a full team for the first time since 1999 at Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday.
"There's no stress because we're already here, so now it's just fun," junior Raquel Morgan said of reaching the team's goal.
The Jumbos hope to place in the top ten of a 24-team field, a high bar for a team that has only one runner with prior experience in cross country nationals.
"We are ranked ninth in the nation," senior tri-captain Becca Ades said, the lone Jumbo to be making a repeat trip. "So not only I but a lot of people think that's very realistic."
Ades will be joined by Morgan and classmate Sarah Crispin, sophomores Catherine Beck and Katy O'Brien, and freshmen Katie Rizzolo and Evelyn Sharkey. While both Beck and O'Brien raced at indoor track nationals earlier this year, none of the other six runners have cross country nationals experience.
Beck will likely be where she has been all season long - out in front again for the Jumbos. The experienced Ades will be close to the front as well, with Morgan and O'Brien joining her.
Sharkey has been a wildcard throughout much of her rookie season, having worked her way up to varsity late in the season. Her times keep improving and a big race such as this will give her an opportunity to make an impact and an impression.
Rizzolo and Crispin both had subpar performances last weekend at Regionals and the team hopes they can bounce back. Cripsin has been battling bronchitis and, although it was uncertain whether she would run this weekend, she will join her teammates on the course on Saturday.
Ades will run the last cross country race of her career on the sport's biggest stage. This will be her third individual trip to nationals, but marks the first time that she will have her full team with her.
"If everyone just races the way we've been racing all season, we're going to do really well," Ades said. "If people have breakout races, we are going to do even better."
The team secured an automatic bid to Nationals after taking fifth last weekend at the Div. III New England Regionals. The bid accomplished the team's season goal of reaching the national level, and, in the words of coach Kristen Morwick, anything else will be gravy.
"Before, there was always another race, but [now] there's nothing else to qualify for," junior Raquel Morgan said. "So now it's just 'give all you have.'"
The top competition at nationals will likely come from within the NESCAC, which is sending five teams to Ohio. Williams won the national championship last season, with Middlebury placing a close second, and both teams will be joined by Colby and Amherst. The Jumbos are ranked fifth in the group, where they've hovered most of the season. With so many teams in front of them from their own conference, the Jumbos know that there is tough, if familiar, competition awaiting them in Ohio. But they see this experience as an advantage.
"We are in the most competitive division of Div. III college running," Ades said. "We race against the best racers every week. Because of that, we are really prepared for this race. It's not like we're going to have to do things we don't normally do."
