With the coming of each new year, every college team hopes that it can get a talented and energetic freshman class on which to rest their hopes for the future. And after only one race, it is apparent that this year's freshman class is ready to make an immediate impact and give such a hope to the women's cross country team.
The Jumbos opened their season on Saturday with a 5k race at the Bates Invitational at Pineland Farms. In the unique style of super cross country, in which ten runners are scored instead of the traditional five, the women took third out of four teams. Tufts finished with a score of 243, behind Colby and Bowdoin, which had 119 and 186 points, respectively. Bates finished fourth with 306 points.
Anya Price, a junior, led the way for the women, finishing 14th overall with a time of 19:37. Right behind her was a slew of freshmen and sophomores, who took seven out of the top ten Tufts spots.
Freshmen Madeleine Carey and Abby Barker had impressive debuts, finishing 16th and 17th, respectively. Carey finished in 19:44 with Barker finishing six seconds back. Sophomore Lilly Fisher finished one place behind Barker in 19:55. To round out a great front pack, freshman Lauren Creath fought her way into the top 20 with a 19:59 time.
"The freshmen were really great," Price said. "They've looked great in workouts, and this was a test to see how they'd fare in a race. They are all really excited about performing and making a difference. Having three freshmen in our top five is really promising."
The underclassmen have stepped up to fill voids left by the absence of some of the returning varsity runners due to injury. The promise of the freshmen class is becoming very apparent, even in this first event of the season.
"I am really excited about my classmates," Carey said. "There are so many talented runners in the Class of 2014 and it is really great to have such a solid group to train and compete with for the next four years."
While the race was a good kickoff to the season, Price says it was "not indicative of how we'll score in future NESCAC races" as there is a lot of progress to be made. "Once we work on our pack running and our pacing a bit more, we have the potential to run with the girls that passed our lead pack," she said. "We definitely have a shot to move our pack up toward the front of the race."
With new faces in the scoring spots for the Jumbos, Price hopes to help lead by example and help with the pack running.
"It is a little bit of a challenge to lead this new pack and push the pace," she said. "In the past I was trying to hang on to the pack in front of me, but now I find myself leading the pack."
The talented group of freshmen, meanwhile, is excited about being able to contribute right away.
"I am thrilled that I can be a scoring runner," Carey said. "But it also means that I have that much more responsibility to my teammates and my coach. But my teammates are a really great group of people, so that makes it easier to not be so nervous."
Looking to the future, the Jumbos are hoping to run better as a pack and make a smooth adjustment to the 6k.
"I should have run a smarter race," Carey said. "I am looking forward to the 6k, but it is always a challenge to race a new distance and I will hopefully be able to use some of my more experienced teammates to help pace me."
"The season got off to a slow start because of fatigue and a lot of injuries," Price said. "I think it is really important that our upperclassmen push our frontrunners once the season gets into full swing. I think a lot of the upperclassmen are going to come on strong once they get into things, and I think it's really going to help out the young runners once we get into championship season."
With the young talent upfront and the experienced depth, the Jumbos are thrilled about getting into the thick of the season. Saturday will be a preview of the Regionals course at the Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams College.
