The women's cross country team capped its best season in recent memory and redeemed a 22nd-place finish at Nationals last year with a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Div. III Championships this weekend, the best showing in program history.
Teams from across the nation arrived in rain soaked West Chester, Ohio to compete in the Div. III Cross Country National Championships Saturday. In the final race of the season, runners had to lay it all on the course, but it wasn't just heart and determination that was left behind.
"A lot of people lost their shoes," sophomore Evelyn Sharkey said of the mud-ridden course. "A girl from MIT...lost her shoe in the first 50 meters and had to run the rest of the 6K race only wearing one."
With or without the adequate footwear, runners made their way across the finish line, and in the end it was the NESCAC that ruled the day. Tufts finished fifth with 214 points. Middlebury captured the championship with 144 points, and Amherst followed close behind with 145. The finish highlighted the domination of the NESCAC, as well as Tufts' ascent in the ranks.
"I thought we were capable of [finishing] somewhere in the top five, maybe four if we were great," coach Kristen Morwick said. "The toughest obstacle was the mud. It was mud over their ankles in places. Racing conditions were far worse than NESCACs. It was a beautiful day, but the course was shredded, especially after the men."
The mud may have actually helped junior Katy O'Brien, a runner who has thrived in poor conditions this year. O'Brien led the Jumbos with a 16th-place finish (23:31), which earned her team 12 points. Along with junior Cat Beck, who finished in 30th place (23:44), the two earned All-American honors for the team.
"To come away from this race as an All-American is definitely a great honor, and I am so proud to be a member of the fifth place team," Beck said.
"Beck deserves a lot of credit for leading the team all year," Morwick said. "We call her and O'Brien the twin towers - if one falters a little, the other steps up. They are a great one-two combo."
Despite her top-30 finish, Beck was frustrated by the fact that her time could have been better had course conditions been optimal.
"My own race left me feeling frustrated as I know the muddy conditions hurt my performance," Beck said. "It is hard to accept that something so far out of your control, like course conditions, can have such a detrimental affect on your performance, because Nationals is something I have been training towards for such a long time."
The adverse conditions played a huge factor in the race, and as runners had to jockey for position with a quick opening sprint, many suffered from an early disadvantage.
"Some points where the course narrowed, people had to stop running to get around the corner," Morwick said. "The men's race strung out so quickly, and once you got into a position, you pretty much had to stay in it."
Beck and the team, however, were still in high spirits at the end of the weekend with such a dramatic improvement over last season's 22nd-place finish in the field of 24. Sharkey narrowly missed All-American honors, finishing in 36th-place, one off from the 35th place cut-off. Seniors Raquel Morgan in 82nd (24:42) and Jenny Torpey at 118 (25:06) along with sophomore Katie Rizzolo (174, 25:42) and senior Sarah Crispin (251, 26:52) rounded out the Jumbos' field.
"I am really happy with how I ran on Saturday, and so proud of how the team did," O'Brien said.
Morwick was pleased with her team's accomplishments as well, and she reiterated the mentality of teamwork that has guided her team all season long.
"Just like at NESCAC, we needed five people to step up and they did," she said.
And that ability to step up at just the right times has been aided greatly by the week-in, week-out competition from fellow NESCAC powerhouses, which have spurred the Jumbos all season long.
"Tufts hasn't been a traditional powerhouse, but we're getting better," Morwick said. "And it helps running against that competition. We beat the No. 1 and No. 2 [ranked] teams as some point this season, Williams at the NESCAC Championships and Amherst at [the Jumbo Invitational]."
The trip to Ohio also added some more national experience to a now-seasoned squad. The team's top three finishers - O'Brien, Beck and Sharkey - will all return next season, along with Rizzolo. And with Torpey, Crispin and Morgan graduating from the top seven, the team will look to fill their ranks with both freshman and current runners, including sophomore Susan Allegretti, an alternate in this year's Nationals squad.
"Allegretti definitely should move up, and Rizzolo has battled all year and shown sparks of greatness and should move into the top five," Morwick said. "[Junior] Anna Shih should move up. Next year, we're just looking at recruiting more distance kids."
"I'm very excited for next year," Sharkey added. "We still have some very good runners, and we'll have even more experience at the championship races than we did this year."
