Each team is coming off one of its most successful seasons in recent history and each hopes to duplicate that success this year.
Last season, the women's team had its first national champion in Nicole Campbell '00. Campbell won both the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA titles in the triple jump. She also led the Jeffs to a seventh place finish at nationals.
In addition, Dinelle Pineda '00 earned All-American honors in the 1500-meter.
Overall, the team had its highest finishes ever at the NESCAC and New England championship meets. While this success will be difficult to repeat with the loss of Campbell and Pineda, Head Coach Eric Nedeau remains optimistic about this year's team.
"Our strength this year will be in the mid-distance and distance events, but we also have a lot of quality individual athletes in the sprints and jumps. Certainly, though, it will be impossible to offset the loss of a tremendous athlete such as Nicole and her ability to be at an extremely high level in a lot of events," said Nedeau.
In the distance events, Amherst returns several top performers in Kate Hamill '03, Laurel Kilgour '03, Emily Lobsenz '02 and Katie Scangos '02.
Scangos, however, will not run in many events this season, since, according to Nedeau, she "has been going nonstop since she was a freshman. So she's going to take a little bit of a break and let everything settle for a while."
This will be a loss for the team, but the Jeffs are very deep in the distance events and hopefully can make up for her loss.
The women's cross country team, which shares some athletes with indoor track, is coming off of a 16th place finish at the NCAA Championships, and the women's team will look to build on the gains made by the cross country team.
While no specific goals have been set in terms of the National Championships, Nedeau is hoping that the team can return to Nationals in the middle distance relay. Two of the four members of that relay team-Kilgour and Hamill-return to the squad this season.
The men's team also met with success last season, especially in the sprints and hurdles.
The team will miss the presence of All-American Bruce Perlow '00 and Jeff Willis '00 in the 800, but hopes to make up for their loss with a strong freshman class. The team is strengthened by the addition of several athletes from the football team.
"We have a lot of guys coming off a successful football season, and that has led to a lot of excitement on the whole track team," Nedeau related.
Two of those players are Pat Hayes '03, who played defensive line for the football squad, and Okey Ugwonali '02, a running back, both of whom were All-New England performers in the hurdles last year.
"Hayes is going to be one of the top hurdlers in the region this year, and I think he knows now what exactly he has to do in order to reach his full potential, and to be one of the best in the country," said Nedeau.
The team also returns top performers in the sprints and middle distance events.
Nathaniel Robinson '02 qualified for the NCAA meet in the distance medley relay and Tri-captains Jared Moshe '01 and Rob Long '01 earned All New-England honors in the 400-meters.
They also earned the praise of coach Nedeau as being two of the best sprinters in New England.
Overall, Nedeau hopes a relay team and at the very least a couple of individuals will qualify for Nationals.
The season begins Dec. 9 when both teams travel to Tufts University. Nedeau said that this would be a low-key meet for his teams.
"Probably only half of the team will compete," said Nedeau. "Mostly it is a chance for the freshmen to get some experience competing indoors and also a test for people to see where they're at. We want to get out there and have some fun without there being a lot of pressure on the team to perform well."