The men's and women's cross country teams collectively sent two athletes to the NCAA Div. III Cross Country Championships on Saturday, and while each fared well, neither felt they performed as strongly as they could have.
On the women's side, senior tri-captain Amy Wilfert made her third and final appearance in the race. She took 50th out of 279 competitors, finishing in a time of 22:01.0 on the 6,000-meter course at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.
Wilfert was just under 15 seconds out of the top 35 finishers, who each earned All-American honors. She had secured such honors with her 31st place finish in 2009, while, in 2008, Wilfert took 48th, and, like this year, finished a mere 15 seconds out of the top 35.
"I was disappointed with my finish just because my expectations were very high based on how I finished last year, but overall I think it was a good race for me," Wilfert said. "It was very cold and windy, and I was constantly surging, trying to pass people but wasn't going anywhere. I think it was just a really competitive field this year, so that made it tough."
Wilfert had struggled with injuries this summer and took longer to get back into the groove of racing this season than most. She said that her expectations might have been too high.
"That I finished basically as well as I did sophomore year shows that I still improved a lot at the end of the season and that I ended on a good note. Even though I was not happy with my place, it was probably one of my best races of the season."
Wilfert finished 12th among athletes from New England, the region that dominated the race, with two athletes finishing in the top five.
In a field of 32 teams, the four qualifying New England teams all finished in the top eight. Middlebury took the team title, continuing to show its tight pack. The Panthers' top five had a spread of a mere 26 seconds and were, interestingly, the only team in the top five without at least one All-American.
The Panthers, who have now won six titles since 2000, were accompanied in the top five by MIT and Williams.
"I think this race showed that the New England region is the strongest region in the nation right now," Wilfert said. "We had four teams in the top eight, and I think if Colby had been there, they would have been in the top 12." Colby finished fifth at regionals but was not awarded a bid.
"[The race] shows that our region is more competitive than it has been in a while," Wilfert said.
On the men's side, in his first appearance on the national scene, sophomore Kyle Marks took 64th among the 279 competitors. He finished in an impressive time of 25:14.9 on the 8,000-meter course, setting a personal record for an 8k by nearly 40 seconds.
As a runner who likes to go out hard, Marks used the very flat course to his advantage.
"I was really happy with [my race]. I did pretty much exactly what I wanted to do to have a good race, and I was really excited," Marks said. "I planned on getting out really well toward the front of the race and then settling back into a pack and trying not to fall off the pace too much in the middle miles of the race, and then be able to pick people off in the last mile, and that's pretty much exactly what I did."
After taking 12th at the NCAA New England Regional Championship race last weekend, Marks made a huge jump to finish fourth on Saturday among runners from New England, edging out several athletes who beat him in their last faceoff.
Unlike the women's race, the men's was not dominated by New England, with MIT in 12th leading the way for the region.
"I think the big surprise was that New England didn't have any individual All-Americans, but that was more because of how good the other regions were individually," Marks said. "I don't think too many people from New England had a bad race, but the race itself was very competitive."
Haverford earned the title of national champions with a score 17 points ahead of the second-place finisher, North Central College (Ill.). All five of Haverford's scorers earned All-American honors, and their top runner earned the individual title.
"I definitely think that if there was any nervousness or anxiety about me not feeling that I belong at nationals, that went away with the race," Marks said. "It also shows how our team, especially next year, will belong at nationals, because I think we're a team that would peak for nationals. I definitely think that my season peaked for this race, so in that sense it's exciting for our team."
The races on Saturday ended a successful collegiate cross country career for Wilfert and represented just the beginning of Marks' campaign on the national level.
Editor's Note: Lauren Flament is a member of the women's cross country team.
