Women's cross country places third at Conn. College in NESCAC Championship tune-up

Tufts competed at the Conn. College Invitational in Waterford, Conn. on Saturday, finishing third out of 25 teams to continue its successful trajectory in the 2018 season.

Tufts totaled 82 points, falling just short of second-place Dickinson, which scored 72. Fellow NESCAC member Middlebury captured first place with 67 points, while Williams claimed fourth with a score of 116. 

Several Jumbos posted excellent individual performances in the 6K event. After finishing first overall at the All-New England Championship last weekend, senior co-captain Natalie Bettez continued her dominant season with a mark of 21:23.2, good for third place overall. Junior Lydia Heely (22:15.6) finished second for the Jumbos and 11th overall; first-year Anna Slager (22:29.6) placed 20th to round out the team's top three. Just behind Slager, senior co-captain Kelsey Tierney (22:31.8) finished 21st in her first full varsity event of the season. Rounding out Tufts' top seven were seniors Julia Noble (22:38.5), Olivia Barnett (22:53.6) and Caitlin Porrazzo (23:06.3) in 27th, 36th and 48th places, respectively.

“I knew it was going to be a pretty competitive race," Bettez said. "I was trying not to put too much pressure on myself — just kind of go out and run my own race and see how it would go. Overall, it was a very fast race, so I’m happy with how that went."

Tierney was pleased with her performance in light of her recent return to competition.

“It [was] my second race of the season because I’ve been dealing with a really tough injury," Tierney said. "My first race was last week, and I went out too hard and slowed down a little bit at the end, so I wanted to try and pace this one better. I actually ended up pacing it perfectly, which is kind of rare for me. I think I started out around 16th place, and I only ended up moving back to 21st, which is kind of ideal. So I was really happy with just trying to pace myself better and finish a 6K, because I haven’t finished a workout of more than 4K. And it was great to see how I felt in the last bit of the race before we get into more important races."

Senior Jennifer Jackson (23:08.4) and junior Nicole Kerrigan (23:08.6), along with sophomores Olivia Martin (23:09.6), Alexandra Wolf (23:17.1) and Melissa Rowland (23:35.6), all finished in the top 100 of the 307-runner field.With several strong performances outside of its top seven, the team looks incredibly well-rounded.

Bettez was proud of the team’s performance.

“I saw a lot of people who really stepped up and put themselves out there yesterday," Bettez said. "It was definitely a faster than normal race, and a lot of people didn’t let that scare them and were able to work off it really well."

Tierney and Bettez both mentioned that the Jumbos performed better than they were hoping, despite the muddy conditions at Conn. College.

“This course is traditionally very fast," Tierney said. "The past two years, it rained the day of or the day before, so it got really muddy because it’s right on the ocean. We thought times would be as slow as last year, but they actually ended up being around a minute faster this year. It was raining a bit, but a lot of people still ended up getting [personal records]."

Following two weeks of rest and training, the Jumbos will head to the NESCAC Championship on Oct. 27 at Boston's Franklin Park, where they competed last week in the All-New England Championship. The team remains optimistic about the race, despite the strong competition it will face from Middlebury, Williams and Bates.

“We already did a workout at [Franklin Park], but this coming Friday, we might go down to check out how the mud is doing and do more specific 5K stuff, and we’re also doing a hill workout this week to prepare,” Tierney said. “Now, I think we’re safely above Williams and same with Bates, so Middlebury is our big competition for NESCACs and MIT at regionals. MIT and Middlebury are both really good teams, but they both deal with injuries and bad days just as we do.”

Bettez pointed out that the close nature of the competition among the NESCAC schools means the championship is anyone's game.

“Franklin Park is a course we know pretty well,” Bettez said. “In terms of the race, it’s going to be a very interesting one. Yesterday, we beat Williams but we were behind Middlebury, so it will be very interesting to see who can come out on top. I think we have a great team, but we haven’t been able to fully show how good we are, so that will be a great race to do that.”