For the women's track and field team, which won the New England Div. III Championship last winter after finishing second for five consecutive seasons, this year, the goal remains the same: beat Williams.
But while Tufts may be hoping for results similar to last season, this time around the process will be a little bit different.
"We're going to be a different team," coach Kristen Morwick said. "We're not going to be successful in the same way and score points in the same way, but I think we can do really well."
As far as the running events, sophomores Stephanie McNamara and Amy Wilfert, who recently returned from cross country NCAAs, will head up a distance squad whose depth may suffer from the graduation of All-Americans Katy O'Brien (E '08) and Cat Beck (LA '08), both of whom helped bring home a national championship title last year in the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) event.
"I just think we're not as deep in the 1,000 and the mile distances," Morwick said. "Losing Cat and Katy, I think Amy and Steph will be just as successful, but they ran for us too last year, so we just won't have the depth, but we'll have the big point-getters."
The Jumbos may benefit, however, from a less-than-ideal finish for the rest of the cross country squad, which failed to qualify for Nationals as a team in the fall and will arrive at the track looking to redeem itself.
"I think that's always a good motivator," Morwick said. "A lot of them are coming in much better physical shape out of cross country, and it's funny -- some years, if they haven't had the best cross country season, they take more time off, but they're all really anxious to get going again ... I think they're all pretty psyched."
Tufts also bolstered its middle-distance lineups over the course of the last year after failing to score anyone in the 600m and scoring only O'Brien in the 800m at the regional championship meet. The team will benefit from the addition of freshman Kayley Pettoruto, who finished fourth in Massachusetts last year in the 600m. Pettoruto is part of a sizeable freshman class that has already started to display its potential and focus.
"I'm confident that we might have a really good chance of beating [Williams] again," senior tri-captain Paula Dormon said. "This freshman class seems really strong and really up to the challenge, so I'm expecting anything."
"They have such a great work dynamic, which is fantastic to bring to the table," junior Logan Crane added. "I couldn't be happier about the freshman class."
The sprinters should also be in good shape despite the loss of last year's other senior co-captain and All-American, Kaleigh Fitzpatrick (LA '08), who joined Beck, O'Brien and McNamara on the DMR team. Crane, who owns the school record in the 55-meter dash and just missed qualifying for the finals in the event at Nationals, will lead the sprinting unit.
The Jumbos should witness the most improvement on the field events side with the arrival of three talented freshman jumpers in Shantal Richards, Dayorsha Collins and Nakeisha Jones, a Massachusetts and New England champion in the triple jump last year. The trio will join Crane, who posted the top mark in the long jump at the regional meet last season, on what the Jumbos hope will be a dangerous jumping squad.
The freshman class also boasts new pole vaulters and throwers to help strengthen its traditionally weaker areas.
"We just kind of reloaded in areas where we didn't have depth or big point-getters, like field events," Morwick said. "We relied heavily on our big point-getters, like Cat, Katy, Steph, Logan and Kaleigh last year ... we did have a lot of contributors, but I think it will be a more balanced approach this year."
Stronger field events may also give Tufts an extra weapon against Williams. The Ephs thrive on their running, and many of their runners have already proven themselves this year; Williams tied for the conference title in cross country this season before going on to earn fourth place in the country at Nationals.
"That will definitely help us balance the team better and help us stack up better against Williams," senior tri-captain Jackie Ferry said. "They didn't have the best field event people last year, so hopefully having some good field events on our team will just give us an extra edge against them.
"We haven't seen them yet, but I'm sure they got a lot of strong freshmen," she continued. "I'm assuming it's going to be a pretty close battle and we're definitely going to go for it, and hopefully it will work out again."
The team will get its first opportunity to test its balanced approach when it heads to Northeastern Saturday for the first meet of the indoor season, the Husky Invitational.
