With All-American Cat Beck sitting out most of the 2007 women's cross country campaign with a stress fracture to her femur, senior tri-captain Katy O'Brien found herself with much of the team's burden on her shoulders.
At Saturday's Trinity Invitational in Manchester, Conn., O'Brien more than delivered, taking first and paving the way for a slew of Jumbo top-10 finishes.
In the first race of Beck's absence, O'Brien paced the field, completing the hilly Wickham Park course in 16:31 despite the heat and humidity.
"Katy has always been a leader, judging by her performance in cross country," junior Katie Rizzolo said. "This is her first year as captain, so she's taking on more of a leadership role that way, but even when I was a freshman and she was a sophomore, she was always kind of a leader to me on the track and on the cross country course."
With a trim total of 26 points, O'Brien and the Jumbos beat out six other teams, including NESCAC foe and host Trinity. Led by a second-place finish from senior Kristina Miner, the Bantams couldn't catch the surging Jumbos, who landed each of their scoring runners in the top 10.
"I think [O'Brien's finish] definitely put some confidence in our team," junior Amy Hopkins said. "Even with our top runner injured, at this point we have so much depth that I think we'll be very successful."
Tufts also saw promising results from a strong crop of underclassmen making their debuts. O'Brien was followed by McNamara, who took fourth place overall with a clip of 17:18, sophomore newcomer Lisa Picascia, who took fifth with a 17:20 mark, senior Anna Shih in seventh at 17:33, and freshman Christy Loftus, who secured ninth place with a time of 18:00. Hopkins and freshman Jennifer Yih also finished 13th and 14th, respectively.
In the first race of their college careers, many freshmen posted impressive results, surpassing some of their personal expectations.
"Mostly [my goal] was to just get used to a new competition field," McNamara said. "I was kind of nervous because I was told it was a pretty hilly course, so I was just trying to get through it and do my best. I was wondering if I should use it as a hard run and more as a training strategy instead of a racing strategy, but when I got in the race my strategy kind of changed and I realized I was able to go for it."
"They did really, really well," Rizzolo said of the rookie class. "We don't put any pressure on our freshmen, and the fact that they can already step up like that shows that they're going to be great for us in the future."
Though the victory was a promising start to the season, the Jumbos have a lot of ground to cover in order to meet the standards set by last year's fifth-place finish at the NCAA Div. III Championships, the best in the program's history. With the absence of Beck and graduated senior tri-captain and All-American Sarah Crispin, O'Brien and the Jumbo crew will have to be at their best when championship season rolls around. With Oct. 6's All-New England Championships in the not-too-distant future, the Tufts runners are looking to get back into peak physical condition in the coming weeks.
"We still have some work to do to get ready for late in the season, but this race is a really good indicator of where we are right now," Rizzolo said. "Given the physical condition that we're in, we have places to go with it."
"The training has been really great," McNamara said. "Coach Morwick gives us really good workouts that are geared toward what we need. As long as we can all stay healthy, I think it will be a great season."
