Women see promising results at James Early Invite

The women's cross country team got a preview of the stage on which the NCAA New England Championships will be played at this past weekend's James Early Invite at Westfield State. As the last contest before the NESCAC Championships, the team used the James Early Invite to gauge how prepared it is for the looming postseason. The resulting second place team finish was more than the squad expected and bolstered confidence as the meat of the season gets under way.

"We raced really well, worked well together and were able to keep the pack up at the top of the race. Everyone ran a consistent, strong race and it showed in the end result," senior Heidi Tyson said.

Trinity College finished the day atop the field, as it garnered first place by a commanding 63 points. Having four of their top five scoring runners within the top 15, and being the only team with three runners in the top ten made the Bantams hard to beat. The Jumbos were aware of the strength of the Trinity squad going into the meet, so the results weren't surprising.

What was surprising when the final standings came out was that the Jumbos came out on top of a strong Brandeis team. Brandeis has provided stiff competition in the past and prevailed over the Jumbos in most of the recent contests. Last year the Judges went on to take fourth at the New England Division III Championships in which Tufts was tenth, and also made the trip to the NCAA Championships. Even though the margin was only four points, the victory over Brandeis was monumental.

"This was a huge meet in terms of the results it produced. The purpose was to see the course that we'll be racing on again for the (NCAA) qualifier, but to come out and beat Brandeis was awesome," coach Kristen Morwick said.

In the front of the Jumbos pack was the tandem of junior Lauren Caputo and freshman Becca Ades, who have developed into a racing dynamo over the course of the season. The pair stayed together and ran with each other until about the last 1000m of the race. Caputo completed the 6K course in 22:36.50 in 7th place individual finish. Seven places back was Ades who strided to a time of 23:01.20. The combination of these two front runners has provided the Jumbos with added depth up front, and has provided Caputo and Ades a way to feed off each other and work together to break up other teams front running packs.

The pack that has been in effect throughout the season remained that way, with the same cast of characters playing different roles this weekend. Seniors Kristen Munson, Mary Nodine, Danielle Perrin, and Heidi Tyson and junior Lauren Dunn worked as a formidable force throughout the competition, pushing each other to forge ahead and switching off leaders as whoever was strongest would lead the way.

"When you work together it's easier to pass people and move people up," Dunn said. "You let someone surge ahead and pull everyone with them and then they rest and let someone else pull ahead. You couldn't drop back because there were so many people feeding off each other and it would have been giving up on the team."

Each of the five members of the pack placed within the top 30, all within eight spots of each other. Munson led the way across the finish line, as she captured 22nd in a time of 23:30.30 and showed continued improvement as she battles back from injury. Close behind was Nodine who's time of 23:34.40 was good for 24th, followed one place and four one-hundredths of a second by Dunn.

The time difference between the top five scoring runners and the two other runners completing the top seven for the team was a mere seven one-hundredths of a second as Perrin came across in 27th. Tyson rounded out the top seven, coming in at 30th after having been boxed in at the start of the race. The delta between the third and seventh Tufts runners was 11.3 seconds, evidence of a tight pack that can be utilized in upcoming championship meets to break up scoring threats posed by opponents.

The team does not compete next weekend, but will run in the NESCAC Championships two weekends from now. In preparation for this meet and others, the team will look to build upon the unity that has been formed throughout the season and look to use it to its strength. The more the team communicates and works together, the more it can accomplish and the more effective the pack is.

"Having these last two good meets back to back is key, it gives us a lot to work with," Morwick said. "NESCAC's will be competitive, but we're looking good. We'll be shooting for top five."