Looking to ride the momentum of her first-place showing at the Trinity Invitational in Manchester, Conn. last weekend, senior tri-captain Katy O'Brien once again took charge this Saturday at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, finishing in second place with a time of 18:11.
O'Brien's runner-up performance, strong especially in comparison to the 19:30 mark she set as a sophomore in her only other appearance at the event, anchored the Jumbo squad, which took eighth place by tallying 218 points.
"Katy did really well," junior Katie Rizzolo said. "She kind of held back at the beginning and took it later on in the race, which is really good strategy."
O'Brien was joined at the front of the pack by representatives from first and second-place winners Amherst and Keene State, respectively. Keene State senior Jennifer Adams obliterated the competition, clocking a time of 17:45 to beat O'Brien by nearly 30 seconds. But Adams' performance couldn't propel the Owls to a team victory over Amherst, which got the overall win with 42 points and downed Keene State by over 100. Lord Jeffs junior Elise Tropiano and senior Heather Wilson led the charge, each finishing in 18:16. Keene State freshman Nicole Slane rounded out the top five.
Several other Jumbos came up big in North Dartmouth, Mass. Senior Anna Shih finished second for Tufts, securing 42nd place in 19:32, while junior Amy Hopkins and sophomore Lisa Piscascia, both newcomers, took 50th and 51st place, respectively.
The meet also included an open race, into which Tufts entered a number of its freshmen prospects. The Jumbos landed several successful finishes behind team-leading Christy Loftus and Jen Yih.
Aside from an official scoring mix-up, the day went smoothly for the Jumbo squad. After last weekend's blistering heat and humidity, the runners welcomed Saturday's rain with open arms.
"The weather was definitely much better," Hopkins said. "It was raining, so it was a bit soggy and there were puddles, but it was much flatter terrain and the temperature was so much cooler."
The terrain at UMass Dartmouth was also much flatter and easier to navigate than Trinity's hilly 4,000-meter (4k) course, a feature that, along with the past week's training regiment, lent itself to faster times than those the Jumbos saw in Connecticut.
"Personally, I think I'm getting much stronger," Hopkins said. "Workouts are definitely coming into play, and you can see it in the times. It's hard to compare 4k to 5k, but I felt much better this week. Maybe it was a combination of training and the weather, but I think it was a stronger week for most of us."
While most of the Jumbos are getting back into peak physical form, the team is still competing without some of its key components, including Rizzolo and senior tri-captain Cat Beck, both out due to injuries. While the Jumbos are eager to welcome them back to competition, their first priority is to keep them healthy and potentially available for the postseason.
"Neither of us knows what shape we're going to be in when we come back," Rizzolo said. "It's all touch and go. Neither of us wants to get re-injured, so we're trying to take it slow. We don't want to stress our bodies out."
The Jumbos now look toward next weekend, when they will host the only home meet of the season in the Jumbo Invitational, held at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, Mass. The Jumbo Invitational is a 6,000-meter course. Last season, Beck and O'Brien led the Jumbos, who walked away with a win over NESCAC rivals Bates and Amherst, then ranked No. 1 in New England and No. 3 in the country.
"We're going to put our best foot forward, and we're hoping to come out on top," freshman Stephanie McNamara said. "The fact that we don't have Cat makes things 10 times harder as always, and it's a 6k instead of a 5k, and a very tough course. But we've been training really hard, and we have what it takes to beat the teams we'll be going against. I think it's going to be good."
