Women's cross country finishes 3rd at Bowdoin Invitational

Last week, the No. 8 Tufts women’s cross country team competed in the Bowdoin Invitational held at the Pickard Field Cross-Country Course in Brunswick, Maine. The team performed well, despite missing some of their top performers from the Bates Invitational. The Jumbos finished third at the Invitational out of the eight teams there, continuing their good run of form.

Junior Johanna Ross had the best time out of the Jumbos contingent. She ran the 6k in 23:32.7 to finish sixth overall. Ross was pleased with the result and felt that it was a good way to set the tone for the remainder of the season.

“I was happy with my sixth-place finish at Bowdoin,” Ross said. “I'm coming off of over a year of being more or less continuously injured, so it definitely felt like a comeback. It was a good confidence booster going into the rest of the season. It was a relatively low-key race — we didn't race our top seven — so I started pretty conservatively and then just tried to stay consistent and finish strong. It was definitely helpful to have my teammates in the race with me. They helped pull me along, especially through the middle of the race slump.”

Following Ross, a cluster of Jumbos finished between the top 14 and 20. Junior Cameron Rusin finished in 14th place with a time of 23:51.1. Senior co-captain Nicole Kerrigan finished just behind Rusin in 16th with a time of 23:51.7. First-year Kendall Roberts rounded out the top 20 and finished 20th in a time of 23:57.0. Following them was first-year Lia Clark, who finished 30th with a time of 24:38.8 and sophomore Lucy Tumavicus in 34th with a time of 24:54.6.

The top five runners from each team were included in team scoring, so Ross’ through Clark’s scores were counted in the final scoring.Tufts finished with 85 total points for third place, losing out to second-place Wellesley who scored 73 points and the Coast Guard Academy, who dominated the race with 37 points.The Coast Guard's margin of victory was so large because they had four of the top ten times, including the leading time.Coast Guard junior Kaitlyn Mooney took first with a time of 21:48.5.

The Jumbos have been in good form early in the season with a first-place finish at the Bates Invitational to go along with their third-place finish at the Bowdoin Invitational. Ross attributes this early success to the quality of the first-year class and improved overall health on the team.

“If I had to point to a single thing, I would say we owe a lot of our recent success to our amazing class of [first-years],” Ross said. “There are three or four of them in our top seven on any given day, but the talent by no means ends there. Our team is definitely the deepest it's been in years in terms of talent. The fact that we were able to be competitive at Bowdoin without our top seven is evidence of that. We also have been very lucky this season when it comes to injuries. There were times last year when it felt like half the team was out for some reason or another and now almost everyone is healthy and can work out. This has definitely led to better team morale. Overall, everyone seems really invested and excited about the season which definitely translates well to competitive success."

The Jumbos are back in action on Sept. 28, as they travel to Williamstown, Mass. to compete in the Purple Valley Classic.Coach Kristen Morwick thought the Jumbos are ready for the tough competition to come at the Purple Valley Classic (PVC), and also referred to stiff competition they will face, such as Williams and MIT, who are ranked No. 4 and 5 in the country,respectively.

“We have high hopes for PVC this weekend,” Morwick said. “We face four teams ranked in the top five in New England and the number [four] and number [five] teams in the country. There are some great out-of-region teams like RPI who is ranked No. 10 nationally. Since we have a large [first-year] class and also some other newcomers, running at Williams for the first time will be beneficial, since they will be hosting NESCACs this year.”