Women's cross country places fifth at NCAA Regionals, qualifies for national championship

Tufts placed fifth of the 57 schools participating in the NCAA Regional Championships at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine on Saturday. The Jumbos' performance in the 6K event earned the team an at-large bid to the NCAA National Championship held in Winneconne, Wisc. on Nov. 17.

Tufts' score of 159 put it in front of sixth-place Bates’ 187. MIT finished first overall with a score of 87, while Middlebury (108), Williams (115) and Brandeis (136) finished second, third and fourth, respectively. Senior co-captain Natalie Bettez finished fourth overall and first for Tufts with a time of 21:26.83. Coast Guard's sophomore Kaitlyn Mooney crossed the finish line first as the only sub-21-minute runner, with a time of 20:43.74.

The race was important for the team, according to Bettez.

“This was a really big race for us as a team, so I just wanted to go out and really do my part,” Bettez said. “[The race] went out pretty fast, so I just went out and tried to keep some of the lead people in view. It spread out pretty quick up front and stayed that way for most of the race.”

Junior Lydia Heely clocked in next for the Jumbos, finishing 16th overall with a time of 22:25.86. Senior co-captain Kelsey Tierney finished third for the team and 34th overall with a time of 22:47.47.

Tierney explained how she and her team adapted to the race coming off of a fourth-place finish at the NESCAC Championship in October.

“We all really wanted to go out fast. That was our problem at NESCACs,” Tierney said. “So I wanted to go out fast and basically hang on and keep the rest of our pack with me. And the past two years, I was our third [place finisher] once and our fifth [place finisher] once, and we usually get six people in the top 35. And usually that’s what it takes to qualify, so I know that going back further than that would be bad. I was hoping to keep up with them, and I had to step it up a bit at the end.”

The entire Tufts team finished in the top quarter of the 399 runners in the race. First-year Anna Slager finished fourth for Tufts and 52nd overall with a time of 23:11.20. Just behind her were seniors Olivia Barnett (23:12.32) and Julia Noble (23:13.16) in 53rd and 54th, respectively. Junior Jennifer Jackson capped the team’s strong performance with a 23:46.55 finish, good enough for 91st.

Bettez said the team was dedicated to getting a bid to Nationals.

“[The NESCAC Championship] was a hard race for us. People knew that we really needed to step up if we wanted to get that bid for nationals, and people really stepped up to the plate," Bettez said. "I could tell going into it that people were dedicated. Everyone was exhausted at the end, but people really did their part.” 

The team faced tough competition from its NESCAC rivals. Bettez and Tierney both said that they looked for the jerseys of teams like Middlebury, Wesleyan and Williams as targets to advance on in the course of the race.

Tierney said she was satisfied with the Jumbos' earning a bid to run at the NCAA National Championship but noted that they could have raced better.

“We were hoping to get out faster than last time, which we all did, and we were exactly where we wanted to be," Tierney said. "I think we were hoping for better than fifth, but at the end of the day, there’s a saying, ‘You survive and advance.’ And we survived and advanced."

In recent years, the women’s team has regularly qualified for Nationals, but this year, its bid carries extra significance for the departing seniors: The men’s team also qualified for the first time since 2015.

“[The men qualifying] was really exciting, especially because they weren’t really expected to qualify," Bettez said. “They weren’t ranked going into last weekend, so it’s really exciting to be able to have them come with us. We’ll have a really big fan base and we’ll get to watch them as well. And they deserve it. They didn't go last year, so it’s really nice to be able to see them go this year. And like us, actually, they have a lot of seniors going, so for a lot of us it’s our last year.” 

Bettez said she looks forward to the teams' traveling to Wisconsin together and noted that the race is an opportunity to realize the team's full potential. 

“Last year we got seventh,” Bettez said. “And I think every year we go in and aim to have our best race that we’ve had. I think we haven’t had our best race yet, and so I think we can go in and go for that. It’s really the icing on the cake. There’s nothing to lose, so we might as well go for it and give it our all.”