Women's cross country takes 2nd at the NESCAC Championship

On Nov. 2, the women’s cross country team competed at the NESCAC Championship held at Mount Greylock High School in Williamstown, Mass. The team consistently performed at a high level throughout the course of the season, and that translated to a second-place finish at the NESCAC Championship. Along with the high-ranking finish, two Jumbos were nominated to the NESCAC All-Conference first team.

Sophomore Danielle Page and senior Sabrina Gornisiewicz were both named to the All-Conference team following their respective second and third-place finishes out of the 146 athletes in contention. Finishing within the top seven runners at the NESCAC Championship granted them the nomination. Page ran the 6k in a time of 21:46.1, while Gornisiewicz ran it in a time of 22:07.6. They only lost out to Colby junior Sophia Gorman, who ran the race in a time of 21:40.2. Both athletes were proud of their massive accomplishment.

“Being named All-Conference felt really good,” Page said. “Similar to the team result, I was slightly disheartened to be beat by an opponent I’d beaten before, but considering this is my first true college cross country season, I’m pretty happy with my performance and really have to give credit to the team all titles earned that day, individual and collective.”

Gornisiewicz also spoke about her accomplishments in the race.

“To get third at NESCACs was an amazing feeling despite the actual physical pain,” Gornisiewicz said. “It was also the first time my parents got to see me be a college athlete, which made it all the sweeter. We’ve ran the course earlier this season and I don’t think anyone expected the results of the championships to be as fast as they were. I think the girl who won NESCACs set a course record and my teammate ran over a minute faster which is just absolutely insanely impressive.”

Being new to collegiate cross-country, Gornisiewicz contributed part of her success to the quality of Tufts’ coaching staff.

“It’s really cool [being named to the NESCAC-All-Conference team],” Gornisiewicz said. “It’s all very new to me, so to be completely transparent, I have no idea what it means. I do know that I have great teammates, coaches, trainers, athletic directors and administrators, and so much more support, so I think being named NESCAC All-Conference brings recognition to the great leadership and coaching.”

Numerous other Jumbos had successful performances as well. Senior co-captain Rhemi Toth ran a 23:32.8 to finish in 28th place, first-year Meghan Davis ran a 23:33.4 to finish in 29th place and first-year Lauren Pollak ran a 23:38.2 to finish 31st overall. Sophomore Anna Slager followed directly behind Pollak, running a 23:39.0 for 32nd place while junior Johanna Ross was not far behind, running a 23:45.1 for 37th place. Only these times (Page’s through Ross’) were taken into account for team scoring.

Also competing for Tufts was senior co-captain Nicole Kerrigan (23:50.5) who finished in 44th, first-year Lexi Quinn (24:05.2) who finished 62nd, junior Cameron Rusin (24:21.0) who finished 73rd, first-year Lia Clark (24:54.2) who finished 92nd, first-year Chiara Cinquemani (25:34.1) who finished 112th, senior Ann Roberts (25:38.2) who finished 114th and first-year Kendall Roberts (25:54.9) who finished 122nd.

Overall, Tufts earned 90 points in total to come in second place, beating out third place Bates by 20 points, but losing to Williams who scored 58. The Jumbos were proud of their competitive finish at the competition.

“I think we have nothing but to be proud of our second place finish at NESCACs,” Gornisiewicz said. “However we’ve beaten Williams before this season and have nothing stopping us from doing it again. They have a really strong middle-pack but we definitely have the strength, ambition and fun spirit to defeat them again.”

Tufts’s next challenge will be the NCAA New England Regional Championship held at Pickard Field Cross Country Course in Brunswick, Maine, hosted by Bowdoin on Saturday.