Jumbos off to hot start with win at Bates Invitational

The women's cross country team opened up its season on Saturday with a quad meet at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, Maine for the Bates Invitational. Although the meet was small, with only four teams competing -- Tufts, Bates, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Wellesley -- three of the four teams are ranked among the top 35 teams in the nation: Tufts is ranked No. 21, RPI is No. 29 and Wellesley sits at No. 33. Tufts, using its tight front three and a slew of great performances down the line, took the decisive victory with 122 points in a meet in which the team's top 10 runners score. Bates and Wellesley tied for second with 240 points, while RPI finished fourth with 254 points.

The 5000-meter course was rather challenging. The majority of the race took place on very hilly, and sometimes rocky, trails in the woods. Senior co-captain Audrey Gould opened up with a victory once again, completing the 5000-meter course in 18:31.7.Tufts' No. 2 runner, junior Kelly Fahey, a cross country All-American last year, was right behind Gould in second with a 18:35.4 time. After a pack of Wellesley and RPI runners came through the chute, senior Olivia Beltrani hopped in, taking sixth in 18:50.5.Newcomer Olivia Barnett, a first-year, was Tufts' No. 4 on the day in 19:03.4, while junior Sam Cox, who will be a critical component of the Jumbos' top pack this season, finished just behind Barnett in 19:05.6, taking 11th overall.Sophomores Brittany Bowman and Olivia Nicholson, who both showed great potential for the future of the team, rounded out the Jumbos' top seven scorers taking 15th and 16th in 19:16.4 and 19:17.0, respectively.

According to Gould, the team showed great signs of potential in its first meet of the season.

"We were racing today, but more so using it to gauge our level of fitness and where people fall into place on the team," she said. "Based off that, I was thrilled with our team's performance. For some of our veteran runners it was a rustbuster, and for others it reaffirmed the good things we have been seeing in workouts."

Beltrani added her thoughts as well.

"The strategy was to lace up our spikes, take to the line and dust off those summer cobwebs," she said. "After a long summer of training, we wanted to get back into race mode and remember what it was like to roll in the 'Bos stampede."

In their first collegiate race ever, the first-year class performed well. Barnett was fourth for the team, while runners such as Kelsey Tierney (27th, 19:42.2), Sarah Perkins (34th, 20:11.8) and Julia Noble (44th, 20:24.8) also impressed with their strong showings. 

"I think more than anything the [first-years] will bring depth to our team," Gould said. "We likely will have a few crack the top 10, but keeping them all healthy is more important because they're a super strong class that will be key for us this season and [in] seasons to come."

Although it seemed like things went perfectly according to plan for the Jumbos, Gould noted there are still areas the team needs to work on.

"Everyone came out of the race knowing what they have to work on individually," she said. "Generally working on surges and gear changes toward the end when it gets tough, especially when we move up to 6k, is something we have been and will continue to practice in workouts."

The Jumbos, who were among the top 20 teams nationally last year, will be shooting for nationals once again this year.

"It's not a big goal unless you can't go bigger -- nationals is always on our radar," Beltrani said.