The women’s cross country team kicked off its season with a dominant performance on Saturday, running away with first place at the four-team Bates Invitational. The Jumbos have generally started off strong in recent years, placing first in five of their last six season-opening competitions, including a win at the Bates Invitational to start last season.
Tufts cruised to a fairly easy win in the 5000-meter race, finishing with a team score of 105 to beat out the host, second-place Bates Bobcats, by 65 points. Wellesley was a distant third with 289 points and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) rounded out the field with 317 points. The place finishes of the top 10 runners from each school were tallied for each school's total team score.
Although Bates runners claimed the top two spots, 11 Tufts runners finished in the top 20 and under the 20-minute mark to power the team win. Junior Brittany Bowman led the Tufts pack with her third-place finish in 19:03.8, with senior Kelly Fahey (19:06.3) and sophomore Natalie Bettez (19:14.2) right on her heels in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Senior tri-captains Alice Wasserman (19:20.7) and Sam Cox (19:27.0) also turned in top-10 performances, coming in seventh and eighth overall. Their classmate Lindsay Atkeson (19:34.9) took 11th. Sophomore Kelsey Tierney (19:42.2) finished 15th, leading a tight pack that included junior Olivia Nicholson (19:42.5) and first-year Gia Kim (19:45.6), who finished 16th and 17th, respectively. Senior Olivia Dehm (19:55.0) was the tenth and final scoring runner for the Jumbos, coming in 19th, though junior Margot Rashba (19:56.5) was not far behind.
“We are happy about our win at Bates, but we all know that we have a lot of stiff competition ahead," Wasserman said. "I think we will have a really successful season if we race smart moving forward, keep our communication high and our racing packs tightly knit.”
The key to a successful season will be internal development within the team, especially as the Jumbos look to their first-years and sophomores to make big contributions. A promising sign is that the Jumbos' first-year class had a strong debut showing this weekend. Kim scored points for the team and was the fastest first-year at the meet, while fellow first-year Nicole Kerrigan also finished in the top 25, placing 24th and almost breaking the 20-minute mark with a 20:04.7.
The veterans on the team are enthused about their talented rookie runners.
“We have some outstanding new talent and we were all very excited to start the competitive season off well,” Rashba said.
Tufts' next race is this Saturday at the Purple Valley Classic, held at Williams College. The meet will be the Jumbos' first real test of the season as they compete against a tougher 22-team field that will include some powerhouse Div. III cross country teams and some of the Jumbos' fierce NESCAC rivals. Tufts will look to upset Williams, last year's NESCAC and NCAA Div. III champions. The last time Tufts competed at the Purple Valley Classic in 2014, the team finished third out of 24.
The Jumbos are hopeful that they can continue their early-season success and produce a strong showing this weekend.
“We can’t wait to take on more of the NESCAC schools at Williams next weekend,” said Rashba.
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