Steph Mcnamara, Women's Cross Country
Sophomore Steph McNamara ran to a fourth-place finish out of 330 runners at Saturday's NCAA Div. III New England Championship. Finishing with a time of 23:01.8, McNamara was the first Jumbo to cross the line but was followed closely by classmate Amy Wilfert with a time of 23:15.2, who finished 14th overall. Both McNamara and Wilfert's times were good enough to earn them individual at-large bids to this weekend's NCAA National Championship race to be held at Hanover College in Hanover, Ind.
McNamara's fourth-place showing over the weekend marked another top showing for the sophomore during the fall 2008 campaign. She started the season by winning her first two meets, the Trinity Invitational and the Tufts Invitational, in leading her team to overall victories in both events. She won her third race of the season several weeks later at the Plansky Invitational at Williams. Two weekends ago, McNamara captured second overall at the NESCAC Championships.
After finishing 30th at last year's National Championship race en route to an All-American nod as a freshman, McNamara will look to make it two All-American awards in a row this weekend when she takes to the course against some familiar competitors from the NESCAC. These include runners from Middlebury, Williams, Colby and Amherst, who finished first, second, fourth and fifth at New England's, respectively.
Jesse Faller, Men's Cross Country
Junior Jesse Faller placed second at the 2008 NCAA Div. III New England Qualifier Saturday, earning himself a spot in the NCAA National Championship race to be held in Hanover, Ind., this weekend. Faller finished in a time of 26:03.5, just under 11 seconds behind the race-winner, Williams junior Edgar Kosgey. Faller's performance served as a bright spot for a Tufts team that failed to qualify for the national race by virtue of its 11th-place finish.
While Faller's appearance at the NCAAs will mark the third of his career, it will be his first time competing as an individual runner, and the junior will be looking to improve on his performance from last year when he finished 18th. The national championship race will also provide Faller with an opportunity to continue his rivalry with Kosgey, whom he surpassed at Nationals last year by 11 seconds. The format of the national race favors Faller in that it features a larger group of runners of a higher caliber and allows him to avoid running head-to-head against Kosgey, which ends to favor the Williams junior.
At the race this weekend, Faller overcame poor weather conditions to turn in a stellar performance. At the start of the race, he maneuvered to near the front of the pack, allowing himself to be part of the pace-setting group of runners, a spot he never relinquished throughout the 8k race.
