Women's cross country hits ground running with win in season opener

The Jumbos competed in its season opener at the Pineland Super XC Shootout in Gloucester, Maine on Saturday. While it was a straight shootout between two teams, Tufts beat out Bates to start its season on a victorious note.

The 5,000-meter run was the only event of the competition. Tufts senior co-captain Natalie Bettez took first with a time of 18:08.8, close to a whopping 40 seconds ahead of Bates senior Katie Barker, who placed second with a time of 18:48.0. The victory is Bettez's first of her career.

"I’ve never won a cross country race before, so finishing first at Bates was definitely an optimistic way to start the season," Bettez said. "It was exciting to see all the hard work from the past months pay off."

With her victory, Bettez has high hopes for the season to come.

"My personal goals for this season are to finish strong for my senior year and hopefully travel with the whole team to Nationals,” Bettez said. “It is my last year, so I would love to see us improve on past seasons."

Behind Bettez was junior Lydia Heely, who posted a time of 18:55.6 to place third. First-year Anna Slager, in just her first competition for the Jumbos, placed sixth in 19:13.8. Rounding out the top ten was sophomore Alexandra Wolf  (19:21.0) in seventh, first-year Danielle Page (19:22.6) in eighth and junior Rhemi Toth (19:30.1) in tenth.

Finishing out the top ten Tufts runners, the runners whose times were recorded for scoring, was sophomore Olivia Martin (19:37.6) in 11th, senior Julia Noble (19:44.5) in 14th, junior Nicole Kerrigan (19:44.6) in 15th, and senior co-captain Caitlin Porrazzo (19:52.0) in 16th. 

"Especially after last week’s win, we are all very optimistic about our chances to score well in New England and at Nationals," Bettez said. "If people stay healthy and keep working hard, I think we can have a great season."

Senior co-captain Kelsey Tierney also thinks the team can have a strong season this year.

"Our goals are always to have fun and improve upon our performances from last year," Tierney told the Daily in an email. "Last year we placed third at the NESCAC Championships and second at the Regional Championships, so we would like to match or improve upon those placings. This year I sort of accidentally dared our coaches to get tattoos of our choosing if we win NESCACs this year, so that is definitely one of our top goals. We also of course want to return to the national championship and perform well there."

With a victory at its first meet of the season, the women's cross country team could not have asked for a better result. The runners have already shown they can compete at a high level, and will hope to keep up that same form for the remainder of the season.

"We were all really happy with how the team performed at Pineland this past weekend," Tierney said. "Every year we graduate important seniors from our varsity group, but every year some returners and freshmen always step up to fill in any gaps starting at this first meet. It was fun and exciting to see everyone’s hard work from the summer pay off, get the team win, and take home some maple butter (the top ten finishers at this race win maple butter every year)."

Also, another aspect of the race to note was that the first-years had an impressive first collegiate meet and seemed to slot right into the team. Slager and Page outpaced many of Tufts' experienced runners, a good indication for what is to come from the new class of Jumbo cross country runners.

Tierney has been impressed by the first-years thus far.

"We have a really small class of first-years with only five, but two have already cracked our varsity group," Tierney said. "Anna Slager and Danielle Page had awesome performances at Pineland and have been consistently impressive in workouts all season."

The team competes next at the Purple Valley Classic at Mount Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Mass. on Sept. 22. At the same meet last year, the Jumbos finished a respectable 7th out of 26 teams. In particular, Toth will be looking to repeat her performance from last year — she led the way among female Jumbos with a time of 21:07.6, good enough for 87th overall in the mixed race. Following closely behind her last year was sophomore Maura McCormick, who clocked in 89th with a time of 21:24.4.

Thus, as the All-New England Championship, held in October at Franklin Park in Boston, inches closer, these subsequent meets will serve as a great opportunity for the Jumbos to prepare and get ready for the bigger events.