Jumbos dominate competition at Conn. College

On Saturday the national No. 10 women's cross country team traveled to Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, Conn. to compete in the Conn. College Invitational. On this scenic and flat course located on the shores of the Long Island sound, temperatures were in the low 70s, winds near the water were breezy and the course was rather soft. The Jumbos took advantage of these solid racing conditions to score a meet-best 55 points, defeating runner-up Keene State by 42 points.

"The course looked like it would be a fast, easy course, but it's actually pretty tough in parts," sophomore Sam Cox said. "It's very grassy, which can slow you down, and is sandy in one part. But it's a beautiful place and it was a nice day."

After a quick start, the race strung out quickly. Junior co-captain Audrey Gould found herself in the top six for the first half of the six-kilometer race, but halfway in made a push to the runner-up position, getting as close as she could to the race leader, junior Amy Regan of Stevens Institute of Technology.Though Regan won the race in a new course record of 20:56.94, Gould was able to make up some ground as she placed second overall with a time of 21:46.93.

Not far behind Gould, teammates sophomore Kelly Fahey and junior Olivia Beltrani worked together to pass many runners over the last half of the course. Fahey took fifth overall in 22:15.34, and Beltrani followed a half a minute later, as she kicked hard to take ninth in 22:40.91. At this point, Tufts had its top three runners in before Keene State's top two.

Sophomore Alice Wasserman, who broke out with a great race at Open New Englands last weekend, had a solid race as the Jumbos' fourth-place finisher in a time of 23:08.96, taking 16th overall. Junior Michelle de Mars rounded out Tufts' scoring offensive with her 23rd-place, 23:23.69 finish. Junior Lily Corcoran had a career performance as the sixth finisher for Tufts, placing 32nd overall in a time of 23:39.18, which was a 6k PR by over a minute.

"I was feeling really good today, and it was really awesome having all the parents there to cheer us on," Corcoran said. "I'm really happy with my race overall, and proud of all the other girls for such a strong team finish."

As a unit the women's front pack has been tighter than ever, as their top three runners have all been consistently running within a minute of each other.

"As a team we went into the meet trying to pack up in groups and work together to push each other and move up in the field," Corcoran said. "I think that strategy worked really well for us, and we had some great performances today."

After two straight weekends of racing, the Jumbos will have next weekend off, but will return two weeks from now at Middlebury College for the NESCAC Cross Country Championships. Currently Tufts is ranked third in the NESCAC, behind Middlebury (U.S. No. 3) and Williams (U.S. No. 8).

"While I think our team is in a really good position right now, and we have a lot of girls who are running very strong and continuing to improve, I know some of the other NESCAC teams are also looking good and shouldn't be underestimated," Corcoran said. "We're going to have some pretty tough competition at NESCACs this year."

In this two-week span before the meet, the Jumbos will be preparing wisely.

"Some of us will be tapering off in our practices, as in, we will be lowering our miles, but keeping intensity the same to prepare ourselves for our races," Cox said. "NESCACs is one of the best races of the year, and we'll be working hard to make it a good one."