Runners faced far-from-ideal conditions on a cold, rainy and muddy afternoon at the NESCAC Championship, hosted by Colby College on Saturday. Ranked sixth nationally, Tufts finished with 72 points, earning second place after rival No. 5 Williams, with its score of 47, for the second straight year. Third place went to No. 20 Bates, which netted 109 points, highlighting the separation between the top two teams and the rest of the pack.
“I thought the team really rallied," coach Kristen Morwick said. "We had just snipped Middlebury two weeks before, so to beat them by that margin and also to knock off Bates, to have our girls be ahead of them and beat them solidly too again was nice. We’re inching closer to Williams so that’s also a good sign. I think if everybody can put it all together for regionals we’re in a great spot.”
All seven of the placing Jumbos finished within the top 30 and within just over one minute of each other, demonstrating the cohesion and dedication to pack running that the team has worked on this semester.
Sophomore Natalie Bettez led the herd of Jumbos, placing second overall and earning All-NESCAC First Team honors for her performance. Bettez crossed the finish with a time of 22:52.53 and was one of only four competitors to run a sub-23 minute race on the tough 6-kilometer course. Bettez locked in on Amherst first-year Katherine Treanor with a mile left to go in the race and closed the gap, edging Treanor by less than a second with a strong push over the last 30 meters. Middlebury sophomore Abigail Nadler won the individual NESCAC Championship with a time of 22:33.77.
“Throughout the race, I was focusing on catching other runners from Williams and Middlebury and it ended up being a really good race for me. I was able to catch some other runners close to the finish,” Bettez told the Daily in an electronic message. “I’ve improved a lot from last year so it’s really nice to see the training pay off.”
Junior Brittany Bowman was second for the Jumbos, finishing in seventh place overall with a time of 23:09.41. Bowman saw an 11 place improvement from last year's NESCAC Championship, which was hosted by Wesleyan in Middletown, Conn., where Bowman ultimately netted 18th place. Bowman also received All-NESCAC First Team honors.
Senior Lindsay Atkeson placed 18th overall in 23:36.06, narrowly beating out senior Maggie Peard from Williams, who finished less than eight-tenths of a second behind her. This was Atkeson's first time breaking into the top 20 at the NESCAC Championships.
Tufts' next two finishers, seniors Kelly Fahey and Olivia Dehm, crossed the line in 23:43.30 and 23:45.01 respectively to claim the 22nd and 23rd spots. According to coach Morwick, Dehm placed much higher for Tufts than usual — Dehm scored fifth for Tufts for the first time this season.
Sophomore Kelsey Tierney came in 27th place with a time of 23:51.77 and senior tri-captain Sam Cox rounded out the top 30 with a time of 23:56.48.
Coach Morwick was pleased with her team's results in the race.
"They’ve worked hard and I’ve seen signs of this coming out of training, but you never know if it’s going to come out during a race, and I think a lot of things are clicking at the right time," Morwick said. "Overall, [when considering] this year versus last year, [we’ve had] a somewhat slower start for our team this year and we’re really starting to move now, while last year we had some really spectacular races leading up to this point. This year we’ve had bad races, you know? Paul Short at Lehigh was a bad race for us. So we’ve been through that already and have been able to respond. I think we’re trending in the right direction now. I feel good about it. I don’t usually leave the meet feeling this good, but I was very pleased.”
Heading into the NCAA Regional Championship on Nov. 12 at Westfield State University, No. 2 MIT and Williams will be the only teams with higher national rankings than Tufts in attendance. The Jumbos will rest their top 10 runners in preparation for theNCAA Regional Championship, while the rest of the team competes on Sunday at the USA Track and Field New England Championship, which are held at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass. .
Bettez runner up at NESCAC Championship, Jumbos place second overall
