At last season's Jumbo Invitational, the women's cross country team pulled out a narrow five-point victory over regional No. 1 Amherst, with then-juniors Catherine Beck and Katy O'Brien leading the pack at first and third, respectively.
But 2007's squad looks a lot different than the one that eked out the victory over the regional powerhouse Lord Jeffs, and with Beck still injured, O'Brien will have to lead the charge without her at tomorrow's Jumbo Invitational.
Over the past few weeks, O'Brien has more than proved that she is up to the task. After taking first place at the Trinity Invitational in the team's first race of the season, her second-place finish at UMass-Dartmouth earned her honors as NESCAC's Women's Cross Country Performer of the Week.
"Katy has really stepped it up," coach Kristen Morwick added. "[She] feels like now it's her time to shine - she's won more time in the spotlight this year with Cat out. She's a great leader, and she's been taking the whole situation the right way."
"Katy definitely has a lot of pressure on her with Cat injured," freshman Stephanie McNamara added. "But she's been handling it really well. We're very fortunate to have her on our team."
But O'Brien hasn't been doing it alone, and she will have a strong supporting cast in place when tomorrow's race kicks off. Experienced upperclassmen such as senior Anna Shih and junior co-captain Betsy Aronson have each been stepping up over the past two weeks. Shih who finished second for Tufts at UMass Dartmouth in 19:32 after nabbing seventh place at Trinity the week prior, and Aronson clocked a 19:10 finish at Dartmouth.
A talented group of freshmen, including McNamara and classmate Christy Loftus, will also do their part in Grafton. Loftus, along with classmate Jen Yih, contributed a strong performance in the open race at UMass Dartmouth. And though McNamara was sidelined for the race with a minor injury, the Jumbos hope to have her back for this weekend.
"They're doing really well, and if Stephanie McNamara is cleared to run, we should be in great shape," Morwick said. "They're all doing better than we expected. By the end of the season, they should have a huge impact on our team."
Located on Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, Mass., the course itself is generally considered one of the more difficult ones the team will conquer over the duration of the season. Its 6,000 meters and somewhat rugged terrain will pose a challenge for many of its new participants, several of whom have never been in a race of that length before. The challenge amounts to a fairly large step up from Saturday's 5,000-meter race at UMass Dartmouth, a much less rigorous course.
"Grafton is hilly, and definitely a pretty tough course for us," O'Brien said. "I think it's the first 6k race for the freshmen, so some of them are probably a bit nervous, but they've been working hard."
"It's one of the most challenging courses in New England," Morwick added. "It's the championship race distance, so we'll get a chance to see how we run that."
Despite the difficulty of the course, the Jumbos will breathe a little easier this year in terms of the competition. Amherst, currently the top team in all of Div. III, will be attending the Purple Valley Invitational at Williams. With one of their top rivals absent, the women will face much lighter competition from competitors Bates, Bowdoin, and Wellesley.
Additionally, forecasts indicate that the Invitational will feature better weather than the Jumbos have seen in the past two weeks. After scorching heat at the Trinity Invitational and light rain at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, the Jumbos are hoping for a gift from Mother Nature.
All things considered, the Jumbos appear to be in good shape heading into the only home race of the season. Although preseason NCAA polls ranked the Jumbos No. 6 in Div. III, a small step down from their placement at No. 5 at the conclusion of last season, the team is confident that it will improve by the end of the year.
"We'll be a better team then than we are now," Morwick said. "[We're] getting people healthy and the freshmen are figuring things out."
