For the first time since 2006, the women's cross country team will be traveling to the National Championship meet. By placing fifth at the NCAA New England Div. III Championship, hosted by Bowdoin College, the Jumbos did enough to earn an at−large berth to Winneconne, Wisc.
Middlebury and Williams earned automatic bids to the National Championship meet by placing first and second, respectively. This left MIT, Amherst and Tufts — the next three highest finishers — to sweat it out until the at−large bids were announced. In the end, Sunday afternoon's announcement granted all three teams a spot in the Championship, a tip of the hat to the strength of the New England region.
As two of the top teams in the country, Middlebury and Williams dominated the meet, finishing well ahead of third−place MIT. Middlebury placed their five scorers in the top 21 for a total of 55 points, while Williams had five in the top 19 — good for 60 points. All seven runners from each team earned All−Region honors by placing in the top 35.
Right behind two dominant performances by those two teams was MIT, which scored 134 points, and Amherst, close behind the Engineers with 142 points. Tufts edged Wellesley by just five points to take the fifth spot with 181. In all, four NESCAC teams will be making the trip to Wisconsin, with MIT as the only non−NESCAC New England representative.
Chiara Del Piccolo, a sophomore from Williams, took the individual title, running the six−kilometer course in 20:52, 14 seconds ahead of the second−place finisher. Del Piccolo also won the NESCAC Championship two weeks ago.
Senior tri−captain Anya Price led the way for the Jumbos, finishing 23rd in 22:01. Also earning All−Region honors were junior tri−captain Lilly Fisher and sophomore Madeleine Carey. Fisher and Carey were 34th and 35th, running 22:19 and 22:22, respectively. The final two scorers for the Jumbos were two more sophomores, Lauren Creath and Abby Barker. Creath finished 40th in 22:33 and Barker was 49th in 22:49.
Rounding out the top seven for the squad were junior Julia Hajnoczky and sophomore Laura Peterson. Hajnoczky ran 23:02, good for 58th, while Peterson was 66th in 23:14.
The Regional Championship is one of the highest−pressure meets of the year, and nerves and doubts have been known to resonate in the minds of the competitors, adversely affecting their performances. The Jumbos were as focused as anyone, entering the race with team goals and confidence that kept them ready for any situation.
"We recognized that we were all in it together," Price said. "The pressure was spread out over seven runners and knowing that enabled us to relax and focus on what we needed to do to be successful. We had specific individual goals that helped us keep things simple and focused. Our overarching team goal and each of our individual focuses helped us keep the nerves down."
With four incredibly strong teams in the region figuring to be ahead of Tufts, the Jumbos focused on getting the fifth spot while still looking to take advantage of any mistakes from the other squads.
"We knew that getting close to Amherst was possible if we had a great day," Carey said. "Realistically, we figured Colby would be right near us in points, so we focused on staying with their runners and beating them. We didn't really talk about Wellesley, who ended up finishing right behind us. We still ran as hard as we could and tried to pass as many people as possible, regardless of their uniform."
Part of the team's success can be attributed to its knowledge of the course and the ways the runners could use it to their advantage. After racing on it in the first meet of the season, the Jumbos knew exactly what to expect and where they could make their moves.
"Knowing how flat the course is was great," Carey said. "We knew that we weren't going to hit a big obstacle in the middle of the race. I was glad that we had the experience of running on it earlier, and it gave me the courage to go out and run a hard second mile without fear of burning myself out before some hard terrain."
A Tufts tradition brought another aspect to this particular event. The team's fan base, known as the Crazies, comes out in full force, screaming and cheering as vigorously as possible to will the seven racers around the course.
"It felt so great to be racing and representing the 70 people who were cheering us on," Price said. "It is amazing to be a part of that great energy our team provides. That is part of what makes Regionals so special and we had so much positive energy propelling us to run as well as we could. It built confidence in us and everyone was able to compete with the mentality that we were able to get the job done."
For the first time since 2006, the Jumbos will be flying out to the National Championship meet as a team, ready to perform on the national stage.
"Traveling as a team has always been our goal, but it always seemed like something just out of our reach," Price said.
"Being able to bring the whole team is exactly what we were hoping for. The way our team has been running this season, we knew we could accomplish it. We believed that we could do it all season and our mentality has evolved a lot over the years. It feels great that everything fell into place on Saturday."
