The women's cross country team won the Connecticut College Invitational at Harkness Memorial State Park this weekend. Dealing with tough winds that made the usually fast course harder to traverse, the Jumbos took down the rest of the field, finishing with 53 points, seven ahead of second−place Cortland State. MIT took third with 93 points.
The Jumbos put all five of their scorers in the top 20. Senior tri−captain Amy Wilfert, who finished third, continued her surge to peak racing performance with a solid time of 22:39. Junior Anya Price finished eighth overall in a time of 23:14. Five seconds behind Price was freshman Abby Barker, who finished 10th. Sophomore Lilly Fisher was 12th in 23:21. Rounding out the scoring for the Jumbos was freshman Lauren Creath in 20th place, who finished in 23:36.
Freshman Laura Peterson and sophomore Melanie Monroe also finished in the top seven for the Jumbos in 24:00 and 24:02, respectively. The underclassmen again showed they are ready to contribute to the team and do so at a high level.
"The freshmen have been a huge factor in our success this season, and everyone is looking forward to seeing how they progress through the end of cross country and in future seasons," Monroe said. "We certainly could not have gotten this far without them."
Sunday's race was significantly smaller and more team−oriented than last week's jam−packed field at the New England Championships. The Jumbos were able to focus more on finishing first, rather than going for personal best times.
"My approach this race was to focus on passing people instead of trying to get the best time," Creath said. "It was more about wanting to win as a team."
In past years, Harkness had proven to be a fine course to set personal bests. With fast winds blowing around the course this weekend, however, times were destined to be slower.
"Going into the race, I knew there were going to be some pretty heavy winds and that the course was relatively flat," Monroe said. "I knew I was going to have to relax through the wind and really go out hard from the beginning. I wanted to put myself in a good position to move up during the race."
"This may have been the first time that the top group was able to use each other during the race," Creath added. "I think if we do more of that, it will really help us and improve our score as a team. Personally, I know I am able to run faster if I can work with a teammate who can help push me."
As the squad enters the championship season, health, steady improvement and fine tuning will be extremely important.
"Personally, I want to stay healthy, rested and injury−free throughout the rest of the season," Monroe said. "I want to continue to give every race my best effort."
For the young runners, the college season can prove to be much more grueling than what they experienced in high school.
"In past seasons I've gotten injured at the end, so I'm really focused on staying healthy," Creath added. "I want the team to have solid performances at the championship meets and beat as many schools as we can."
Most of the Jumbos will be going to Franklin Park on Sunday to run the Mayor's Cup 5k, while the top runners will take the week off as they prepare for the NESCAC Championships on Oct. 30.
