Cara Cadigan, Women's Soccer
On the way to a 2-1 start to the season, the women's soccer team has scored four goals and after returning from an ACL tear that kept her from playing last year, sophomore Cara Cadigan has half of them. Most recently, Cadigan was the hero in a double-overtime victory over Middlebury. Ali Maxwell hit a pass to Cadigan in the 107th minute and she managed to touch it past the goal keeper and fire it into the back of the net to break up the 1-1 tie and give Tufts its second NESCAC win of the season. The dramatic victory kept the women's team on a high going into the Sunday game against Carthage College in Wisconsin. The Jumbos came away victorious again with a 2-0 win to give them a 3-1 start on the season.
Last Saturday, Sept. 8, Cadigan made her presence felt when she broke up a scoreless tie in the 54th minute against Colby. Cadigan got off four shots in the game, finally connecting with netting to boost her team ahead for good.
Cadigan captained her Swampscott High School soccer team for two years and was a three time NEC All-Star. She was the league's top goal scorer with 19 goals and nine assists to lead her team to a 16-3-2 season her senior year. She was swim team Rookie of the Year in 2005 and ran outdoor track.
Nick Welch, Men's Cross Country
Sophomore Nick Welch led four Jumbos who finished in the top 25 of Saturday's UMass Dartmouth Invitational, running the five-mile course in 25:45, good for 15th place overall. His performance, remarkable considering coach Ethan Barron dictated a conservative pace for the first two miles, helped Tufts to a seventh-place finish in the event with 55 points. He improved drastically on his showing at last season's UMass Dartmouth Invitational, in which he came in 29th place with a time of 26:40.
Welch finished just ahead of teammate Dave Sorensen. Two other Jumbos, sophomore Jesse Faller and freshman Greg Pallotta, finished with times under 26 minutes. It was the team's second-straight solid performance, including its second-place showing at the Sept. 8 Trinity Invitational.
This was the second-straight strong showing for Welch, who finished seventh at the season-opening Trinity Invitational on Sept. 8 after running the 5k course in a time of 17:04. The Seattle, Wash. native is coming off a strong rookie season in which he appeared in the Tufts' top five six times and posted the Jumbos' best time at the NESCAC Championships, coming in 20th overall.
Next week, Welch will race at the Jumbo Invitational, the team's only home meet of the season. Last season, he finished in sixth place at the event, the highest individual finish of his career.
