The results of a strenuous summer training program became visible almost immediately as both teams swept the first meet of the season, the Sept. 6 Amherst Invitational. Running on their home course in front of a sizable crowd, the Jeffs simply outclassed the competition. The men placed first with 37 points, 11 in front of second-place finisher Trinity College, while the women came away with 29 points, 12 ahead of second-place Trinity.
The highlight of the meet was the end of the men's 8k, when the first three runners to hit the home stretch were Amherst men running abreast of one another. Matthew Katz '05 and co-captains Michael Page '05 and John Stanton-Geddes '04 finished first, second and third, respectively. Jack Morgan '05 and Cooper Knowlton '07 also ran well for Amherst, finishing in 14th and 17th places, respectively.
"My highlight of the season so far would definitely be winning the Amherst Invitational by crossing line with Page and Katz," said Stanton-Geddes. "It's something we'd talked about doing, but to do it was incredible and showed how strong we are."
However, the women also proved themselves individually by taking second, third and fourth place finishes. Carter Hamill '05 led the Amherst women, followed by Aly Venti '04 and newcomer Shauneen Garrahan '07. Garrahan is a runner to watch, as she is expected to be one of the top first-year harriers in New England. Five other Amherst women finished in the top 20: Margaret Davis '06 in sixth, Jenny Horowitz '06 in 14th, Ginger Polich '06 in 15th, co-captain Erinn White '04 in 16th and Alison Rodriguez '05 in 19th.
The Jeffs hit the trails in competition two weeks later on Sept. 20 at UMass-Dartmouth. Despite the humid weather, the men once again took the team title, while the women slipped to second place behind Trinity College, whom they had easily defeated at Amherst two weekends earlier. The absence of two varsity runners, Hamill and Polich, on this particular Saturday accounted for this slip. Nevertheless, both teams posted impressive times on the fast, flat course. Venti took second place out of 224 women, followed by Garrahan in third. When the pack of 204 men hit the trails, Page and Stanton-Geddes had a plan in mind and successfully implemented it, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Just one week later, on Sept. 27, the Jeffs traveled three hours to the University of Southern Maine for the Twin Brook Invitational. When the runners finally hit the trails, the poorly-marked course caused unforeseen difficulties. However, these hurdles did not discourage Garrahan, who finished first in a field of more than 125 women while setting a new course record with a time of 22:39. On her heels was Venti, who finished third overall in 22:59. These women led the team to an overall third-place finish.
After the women, the men hit an extended version of the course for their 8k run. The men did not fare as well as they had previously, as they too were running without two of their top varsity runners, yet one harrier still managed an impressive individual performance. Stanton-Geddes finished first for Amherst with an eighth place finish in a field of 164 men.
Last Friday, Amherst ran in the New England Open at Franklin Park in Boston. Venti led the way for both teams with an incredible time of 17:44 to finish first out of a field of 798 runners from 52 different schools, just one second ahead of the second-place finisher. Garrahan and Hamill also placed in the top 20, coming in eighth and 20th with times of 18:07 and 18:24, respectively. These three led the women to a fifth-place finish overall.
On the men's side, Katz led the way, finishing 49th in 25:44, followed by Stanton-Geddes in 81st place with a time of 26:05. The men finished 22nd overall.
The Jeffs' next meet, the Little Three Championship, comes on Oct. 25. This meet marks the shift from regular season meets to championship season meets. Running on the home course, Amherst will go head-to-head and foot-to-foot with runners from Wesleyan and Williams Colleges.
"It should be a very exciting champion season now that we have Carter [Hamill] back," said Venti. "We have a very strong team this year and we work well together."
Katz feels as though this year's men's team has potential to run late into the season. "As a team, I think everybody can agree that a strong team showing at Nationals is the ultimate goal," he said. "We certainly have the talent to achieve this goal, and we have put in the work."