Jumbos post impressive performance at Paul Short

On Saturday, 10 members of the women's cross country team traveled to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn. for the annual Paul Short Run, an elite invitational featuring a host of teams from Div. I, Div. II and Div. III. The No. 13-ranked Tufts put up a solid performance in the gold race, taking 16th overall and scoring 473 points in a loaded field, defeating No. 2-ranked and NESCAC foe Williams and No. 5-ranked Middlebury. 

Senior co-captain Audrey Gould led the way for Tufts at Lehigh's famed course, taking 58th overall on the six-kilometer course, running 21:33. Classmate Olivia Beltrani was next for the Jumbos, running 21:54 and taking 86th place. Junior Sam Cox had an impressive day on the course, as well. She was just a few ticks behind Beltrani, running 22:02 for 105th overall. Classmate Kelly Fahey crossed the line right after Cox in 116th, running 22:08.

Junior co-captain Alice Wasserman, coming off an individual victory at the Sept. 26 Codfish Bowl in Boston and racing for the third weekend in a row, was 133rd overall in 22:18. Olivia Barnett, the lone first-year on the trip, was sixth for Tufts with a time of 22:32, finishing 162nd overall.Sophomore Brittany Bowman rounded out the top seven runners to cross for the Jumbos, finishing three seconds behind Barnett in 22:35, taking 167th overall. Sophomore Margot Rashba (197th, 22:47), junior Lindsay Atkeson (220th, 23:01) and sophomore Olivia Nicholson (258th, 23:21) also competed in the race and will be critical to the Jumbos' run at a national championship berth in the next few months.

Cox, in particular, had a very impressive performance. Cox, who was the alternate on last year's NCAA squad, was third for the Jumbos this week and will likely be an important member of their top seven this season.

"My strategy was to just go out fast and hold it, [but] in such a big race it is hard to strategize," Cox said. "The course got narrow very quickly so we had to go out hard to hold our positions ... After that I just tried to pass as many girls as possible throughout the race."

Barnett also described her experience.

"I thought that going to a big meet in my second college race ever was going to be very intimidating, but, surprisingly, it wasn't," she said. "Coach Heidi [Caldwell] told us to just have fun with it and not take it too seriously, so that, and the horrible conditions we ran it in, took off some pressure. I was told to add around five to 10 seconds per mile for my 5K time because I've never run a 6K before, and I was three seconds faster per mile. So that was exciting. I'm really happy I was able to go because it gave me good experience for future larger meets."

Cox also explained the "big-meet mentality" that the team had during Saturday's race is wildly different from the natural team dynamic during a much smaller event.

"We also tried to keep an eye out for our teammates and [tried] to communicate with each other," she said. "It's nice when you can find a teammate to work with when you're surrounded by runners you don't know."

As for beating powerhouses Williams and Middlebury this early in the season, Cox was very upbeat.

"We are thrilled to have beaten them," Cox said. "Every team has a bad race once in a while, but we didn't beat them because their teams had bad races: we beat them because we had a good one. I'm really excited to see the new national rankings after Friday."

The Jumbos will next be competing at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association Championships, also colloquially known as Open New Englands, next weekend at Franklin Park in Boston. Open New Englands brings high levels of competition at the Div. I, II and III levels, so the Jumbos will be able to see how they stack up against the region's best before transitioning into the postseason. 

"As we move forward, some people will be tapering their training so they can run at their peak level for their last race," Cox said. "Some people will continue until November, while some will run until later this month. Training will vary person by person, but the coaches try to tailor it so that our final race will be our best."