Coming off of a second place finish to Williams at Div. III New Englands for the fourth year in a row, the women's track and field team has its work cut out for it.
Prospects look good this season for the Jumbos, who will be returning their top two runners in juniors Cat Beck and Katy O'Brien. Beck, who won the NCAA New England Regional Athlete of the Year award in 2005, will continue to lead Tufts in distance events,while O'Brien hopes to continue her dominance in shorter events, including the 800, in which she specialized last year.
If a successful cross country season this past fall is any benchmark of track performance, the whole team has every reason to be excited about this explosive duo. This November, the pair led the cross country team to second place behind Amherst in the NESCAC Championships and then to an all-time best fifth-place finish at the 2006 NCAA Div. III Championships. Beck and O'Brien earned All-American honors for their performances, which included 16th and 30th places in the 6K race, respectively.
Coach Kristen Morwick is confident this season's cross country successes will help Beck and O'Brien, in addition to their teammates, make significant contributions to the track team.
"I think we've got probably 10 to 14 [runners] that will have dramatically different track seasons due to cross country," Morwick said. "They're coming off of their best cross country season ever. People that weren't even New England qualifiers last year are going to qualify and probably score, so it's nice to know that."
"Even with taking it easy now and getting more into the season during January, it's definitely good that we all have a really good base going into the track season," O'Brien added.
Although most of the team is returning, the Jumbos will have some voids to fill in the absence of last year's seniors, specifically the departed Becca Ades, Megan Sears, Arielle Aaronson and Rachel Bloom. Bloom may be the most difficult to replace, as she was the leg of a 4x400 relay team that qualified for Indoor Div. III Nationals last year and has been one of the team's marquee events.
"Having those people around at practice is what we really miss," Morwick said. "Rachel was a four-year Nationals qualifier and a real workout leader, inspiring people and pushing people. But I think the kind of impact she made on the freshmen has been huge. You see them stepping up as sophomores already without her here. She's set a good example, and it's definitely carried over."
While the graduating senior leadership will be missed, Morwick is hopeful that the squad will be able to compensate for the loss in performance, as a promising new crop of freshmen joins the team this winter. Freshmen standouts include short sprinter Logan Crane, thrower Julia Feltus, several new pole vaulters and Kerry Virgien and Andrea Ferri, both of whom compete in multiple events.
Additionally, the team will be strengthened by several juniors returning from abroad, including field specialists Sade Campbell and Mackenzie Rawcliffe.
After spending the fall season in a strength-and-conditioning program that featured varied runs on hills, grass and track as well as much time in the weight room, the Jumbos are ready for their first and only meet before winter break, the Husky Carnival at Northeastern this Saturday. The meet will mainly feature athletes that trained with the track team this fall, while many of the cross country runners will be taking some well-deserved time off.
"This first meet of the season is kind of low-key," Beck said. "It's really focused on just letting the track people get out there and have some fun before break."
"We're still in more of a conditioning phase," Morwick added. "This early meet is kind of to see where you are and not to have a top performance. It's nice to get a mark down there - it gives you motivation to continue training over break."
