A fourth-place finish by the women's cross country team at Saturday's NCAA Div. III New England Championships was enough to earn the team its third-ever bid to the Div. III NCAA Championships.
Despite missing out on the automatic bid that would have come with a first- or second-place showing, the Jumbos were rewarded for a season atop the polls with an at-large bid on Sunday afternoon.
NESCAC teams dominated the meet, with Middlebury, Amherst and Williams capturing the top three spots in the 48-team field. Junior tri-captain Cat Beck finished the race in third place with a 6k time of 21:50, while sophomore Evelyn Sharkey and junior Katy O'Brien finished in 18th and 20th place, respectively. Coach Kristen Morwick was excited for the team's qualifying finish.
"I figured it could go any way, [we] could have been first or fourth," Morwick said of Saturday's finish. "I don't think we had our best day, but we did what we set out to do - to qualify."
The team had a tough week to get through leading up to the qualifiers. With a No. 3 ranking in the national polls putting pressure on the team, along with the academic crush of midterms, the Jumbos stood strong under the stress. Additionally, most of the team had to suffer through a rash that plagued many runners after the NESCAC Championships on Nov. 3.
"[The rash] had a big effect on people's sleep and was made worse by training and sweating." Morwick said. "It clearly affected people at the meet. Middlebury was the one team that ran really well, but NESCAC schools definitely hurt from that experience."
While runners continued to discover the rash throughout the week, players fought through sleep deprivation and the discomfort of the rash to prevail at the qualifiers. Senior Raquel Morgan had an especially bad rash, according to Morwick, but stepped up and managed an important 27th-place finish to help her team.
"Raquel had a great race," Beck said. "She is capable of running some fast times, and this weekend, she got her confidence back. It's really exciting to see that fire back in her."
The race conditions were far better than the conditions of many of the runners. With clear skies and unusually warm weather for November in New England, the team could focus on the rather difficult course at Springfield.
"It was an uncharacteristically warm day on Saturday, but the course was in good shape, and there was virtually no wind," Beck said. "In terms of the course itself, it's quite challenging, with some very steep up hills and some tight turns, which make it hard to judge distances between runners."
The team showed the type of mental and physical toughness they have exemplified all season, and their goal to qualify for Nationals was handsomely rewarded.
The NCAA announced team and individual qualifiers for Nationals yesterday, and the field included strong NESCAC representation from Amherst, Middlebury, Williams and Tufts.
Five New England teams - the four NESCAC squads and Little East Conference champion Keene State - will head to Wilmington College in Ohio next Saturday to compete for the NCAA crown.
Tufts heads to Nationals with the same seven-woman team that competed at Regionals, comprised of Beck, Morgan, sophomores Evelyn Sharkey and Katie Rizzolo, junior Katy O'Brien and seniors Jenny Torpey and Sarah Crispin, along with two alternates, sophomore Susan Allegretti and senior Samantha Moland.
"We'll race our same seven," Morwick said. "They earned their spots."
With the field set, it's now up to the Jumbos to prepare for their final meet of the season. The effects of the rash should wear off in time for next Saturday, and the team can focus on laying it all on the line in Ohio.
"Last year we put it all out to qualify and didn't have much for Nationals," Morwick said. "The key was to get through this weekend unscathed and regroup for the tough week leading up."
"We will go into Nationals being the underdogs, which we like, and I think we are prepared and ready to do very well," Torpey said. "The New England region is the strongest in the country, and racing against tough competition every week has prepared us for the competition we will see at Nationals."
