The women's cross country team has had a good season this fall, but their most important races are still to come. This weekend, the women will miss Homecoming to travel to rival Williams College to race in the ECAC Championship. The weekend of Nov. 16 and 17 will bring the NCAA Qualifiers, and Amherst hopes to be represented by some members of the team at this race.

Led by Coach Erik Nedeau, the women have had a different season than last year. The women lost several key runners, so the team was young and not as experienced. Yet, the team has held together to place well in some great races.

"The season has been long, but good. The women's team isn't as strong as it has been in past years, but that doesn't mean we haven't enjoyed training and racing together," said co-captain Alison Dimon '03. Nedeau also commented on the team dynamics, "This season is very different than in past years-the team and success-as we are in a rebuilding mode due to the amount of graduation losses, and sometimes you tend to compare how we are doing to what we did the year before," he said.

All-American Carter Hamill '05 has been racing extremely well this season. She earned First Team All-NESCAC at this past weekend's NESCAC championships, in which the women placed seventh overall. "I'm racing better than I was last year, but the competition has also gotten relatively stronger," said Hamill. "I'm relying a lot on what I can do in these last few weeks, and keeping my focus on Nationals at the end of the month."

The team has endured highs and lows this season. "One of our toughest races was Little III's because it was horrible weather and there weren't as many people from other teams to race against as usual," said Dimon. "But everyone ran with a lot of spirit and we managed to beat Wesleyan." Williams has been especially strong this season due to a great deal of depth on the team and NESCAC teams have generally shown a lot of talent and ability this year. "We are in the toughest conference and region in the country, so we are competing against the best every week so we are prepared for it fully," said Nedeau.

In the eyes of Nedeau, the women's best race this season was at UMass-Dartmouth. "Up to this point, I would say that the UMass-Dartmouth was our best meet as a group up to this point," said Nedeau. "It was a fast course, so the times were very quick, and fast times equate to building confidence. The team raced very well, and helped push each other very well. I am sure that the next couple of meets will surpass how we did earlier in the year."

With a couple of meets remaining, the team has a lot of work yet to do. As Coach Nedeau said, "like the old cliche, 'the best is yet to come.'"