At the start of the women's cross country season, it would have been no surprise to find five NESCAC squads competing at Nationals in November. But what may have surprised many was that Colby would be among them.
After failing to qualify as a team for the 2006 NCAA Div. III Championship race, Colby was looking to get back on track and defend its national ranking when the 2007 season kicked off.
But things weren't exactly as promising as they appeared on paper. After losing six seniors to graduation, including two-time All-American Karen Prisby, along with junior Kathleen Maynard, who went abroad, Colby still boasted a strong lineup - but one that was dotted with sidelining illnesses and injuries.
Senior tri-captain Liz Petit and junior Devan FitzPatrick, both of whom had been solid for the Mules over their collegiate careers, and sophomore Cassie Knight, who had showed promise in her freshman campaign, were all unable to compete to start the season. Sophomore Kat Gravel was also not at full-strength after running consistently throughout the indoor and outdoor track seasons.
"There were a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle, and also just a lot of things that I wasn't sure how they were going to play out," coach Debbie Aitken said. "So many things were going wrong all at the same time in the first week or two of practice. I really thought we had the potential to be a top-five team in our region, but I definitely started having a few doubts.
"Our first meet, we tied Bowdoin and no one else had seen Bowdoin, so we basically dropped out of the rankings." she continued. "I knew we were probably in a little bit of trouble when we came back and we had three or four people dealing with anemia or injury."
Despite the lineup adjustments, the Mules' healthy runners stepped up, turning in exceptional performances. Senior tri-captain Anna King, who garnered All-Maine, All-NESCAC and All-New England honors last season, led the team, while sophomore Mandy Ivey and freshman Emma Linhard both had breakout years.
It wasn't until the Oct. 13 State of Maine Intercollegiate Championships that everything began to fall into place. The Mules finished just 12 points behind Bowdoin, with King, Ivey, Knight and Petit all placing in the top 10.
"That was definitely a turning point," King said. "People started really getting motivated to turn things up and sort of see what we could do as a team ... We had some ambition after that because our confidence was lifted a little bit."
Two short weeks later, in the conference championship race, the Mules stunned the NESCAC by edging Tufts by a point to secure fifth place, falling only one tally behind Middlebury.
"It took us about five or six weeks to get our act together and get everyone back and healthy," Aitken said. "At NESCACs, I was expecting that kind of result. In the two weeks from the state meet to NESCACs, I could just see it in the workouts. I don't think anyone else was expecting it from us."
The performance put the Mules back on the map, establishing them as one of the NESCAC's teams to beat, vaulting them to No. 29 in the national rankings, and setting the stage for an incredible performance at Div. III New England Regionals that earned them a Nationals berth.
At that race, six of seven runners set personal records to lift the Mules well over the Panthers for a fourth-place showing.
"NESCACs really pumped us up for the New England D3 meet," King said. "Having a goal - that we could go out and beat those teams again or the teams we just missed [at NESCACs] - really helps going into a meet."
The fourth-place finish earned the Mules an at-large bid to Div. III Nationals in Northfield, Minn., and once again, they buckled down and surprised a few teams. Despite being ranked 21st going into the race, the Mules upset several teams, including conference foes Middlebury and Williams, to come away with an impressive 11th-place mark. A pack running strategy was integral for the Mules, as all of their scoring runners finished within a minute of each other. Knight and junior Jen MacDowell also posted PRs, with Knight tying King for the team's leading clip.
"They just went out and ran their hearts out and ran with some confidence," Aitken said. "I told them, 'Don't be surprised if you're 150th and having the race of your life,' and as it turns out, three of them were. I tried to prepare them for what was ahead, and I think that none of them actually got rattled in the race."
Overall, the season was a highly successful one as the Mules staged a comeback that landed them back at the front of the pack.
"It was really rewarding, especially because we got to do it all as a team," Petit said. "It was that much more special."
