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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Jumbos place fourth at ECAC Championship

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The Jumbos' pack of junior Lily Corcoran, first-year Margo Rashba and first-year Evie Heffernan work together during the NESCAC Championship meet at Middlebury College on Nov. 1.

On Saturday, members of the women's cross country team traveled west to Stanley Park in Westfield, MA for the annual ECAC Div. III Championship. Since the ECAC meet takes place the week before the NCAA Div. III Regional meet, most of the top squads rest most, if not all, of their top seven, and instead race their second seven runners (eight through 14).The Jumbos placed fourth overall in the race with 109 points, behind winner Williams (48 points), University of New England (60 points), and Middlebury (85 points).

Stanley Park is a very flat course consisting of a number of field loops as well as a circuit through trails in the woods. Temperatures on Saturday were in the low 50s, and the ground was hard due to a lack of recent precipitation, setting the stage for some fast times.

"The course was mostly nice and flat, except for a few tough hills," sophomore Samantha Cox said. "But there were a lot of loose rocks and roots, so a lot of people fell."

Cox led the way for Tufts with her 15th place finish over the six kilometer course with a time of 22:57.83. Junior Lily Corcoran was 10 seconds away from Cox, finishing in 19th with a time of running 23:07.93. The first-year duo of Evelyn Heffernan and Margot Rashba crossed the finish line next, with Heffernan posting a 23:12.73 for 22nd and Rashba following closely with her 23:17.36 time for 23rd. Sophomore Lindsay Atkeson,who missed most of the season due to injury, laced up her spikes for the first time since Williams' Purple Valley Classic in September and ran 23:29.13 for 30th to round out the scoring for the Jumbos. Seniors Meghan Gillis and co-captain Caroline Kimball-Katz's XC careers came to end yesterday in solid fashion, as Gillis ran 23:34.64 for 34th and Kimball-Katz ran 23:44.07 for 41st.

"Our team had a fantastic race yesterday that showed how strong our second pack of runners is," Kimball-Katz said. "All seven of us finished within 50 seconds of each other and placed in the top 50 of the race. Both of those results were goals of ours going into the race, and we totally pulled it off."

"[The] ECAC [Championship meet] definitely showed that we are a talented team," Cox added. "If our second seven can perform that well, it shows us that we, overall, can compete at a high level."

In terms of strategy, Cox said that she approached the race conservatively.

"I went out slower than I have been for the first mile, then pushed the second mile, and really just tried to hold on during the last mile," Cox said. "I just picked a girl in front of me and said, 'Okay, I'm going to run with her now,' and that really worked out for me. I am very happy about my performance, and this was the first race that I felt that I started to reach my potential again."

Coach Kristen Morwick will now have a tough decision, as she needs to choose who the seventh runner will be for the NCAA Regional Championship meet next week. The top seven currently consists of junior co-captain Audrey Gould, sophomore Kelly Fahey, junior Olivia Beltrani, sophomore Alice Wasserman, junior Michele de Mars and first-year Sara Stokesbury, who proved herself to a strong hill runner last week at the NESCAC Championship meet. A number of factors will need to be accounted for in Morwick's decision for a seventh runner, as she may look for someone who has shown consistent improvement over the last few weeks, or else someone she thinks could attack the hills at Williams and surprise other teams with a strong performance.

"Regionals is a very different race, but we are excited for it since we have raced well on the course," Kimball-Katz said. "We are going to need seven runners that day who are ready to be confident and competitive on a tough, hilly course. I'm proud to say we have more than seven runners ready to do that, which makes the decision on who to race a bit more difficult."

The Jumbos will be looking to earn a bid to the NCAA Div. III National Championships, which take place in Mason, Ohio in two weeks. After a stumble at the NESCAC Championship meet, they are currently ranked sixth in the region, but hope to bounce back to the No. 3 regional standing they have held all season.

As for the departing Kimball-Katz, she expressed gratitude for her experience on the cross country team.

"My goal was to run happy for my last race ever, and I did," she said. "I don't feel sad about the season ending; I'm more focused on how lucky I have been to be on such wonderful teams in the 12 years I've competed in cross country. Cross country teams are families that you can always come back to or reunite with later in life, so I know it's not really over."