In the cross-country scoring system, the places of the top five runners are added up. A perfect team score (places one through five) is 15 points, and the Amherst team was not far off, scoring 39 points to easily dominate over second-place Brandeis University (58 points) and third-place Trinity College (85 points).
The individual trophy went to Keene State College's Mary Proulx, who ran away from the rest of the field with a time of 18:24. At this point, the Amherst team's strength is in their depth. While the Jeffs had no front-runners contending for the victory, they had their top five runners, Martha Nelson '03, Becca Woo '02, Emily Lobsenz '02, Carter Hamill '05 and Captain Molly Burnett '02 finish within eight spots of one another in fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth- and 12th places, respectively. The next two Amherst finishers were Alison Dimon '03 and Aparna Nancherla '04, who finished right behind the first five Amherst runners.
Nelson led the Jeffs in her first collegiate cross country race. Nelson, who transferred to Amherst last year from Stanford University, played soccer last fall and made the decision to switch over to cross country sometime mid-summer. She qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 1500m run indoors last winter and should be a huge bonus for the already deep women's group.
The Class of 2002 at Amherst has led the cross country team for the last few years, and now that they're all entering their senior year, the Jeffs are led by a group of experienced and hardened veterans. Of those veterans, Woo came through Saturday with an exceptional opening meet. Woo finished just ahead of fellow senior Lobsenz, who, with several national championship meets and a summer of more than 100 practice miles a week behind her, should once again emerge as one of the top runners in the region.
One of the biggest prospects for the Amherst women's team this year is freshman runner Hamill. Hamill, who finished fourth for the Jeffs last Saturday, is the sole underclassman in Amherst's top five finishers and could very well emerge as one of their leading runners later in the season.
"Although the meet yesterday didn't exactly produce any personal records, I feel I have a lot of room for improvement," said Hamill. "And I'm looking forward to Middlebury next weekend, mainly because the coach was bitter I chose Amherst."
The next few weeks will consist of hard training with the occasional meet thrown in. After fall break the team will begin its championship season, which will accompany a shift in training phases. The total mileage will drop down and the speed-oriented workouts will become shorter and faster. This change will bring about fresher and sharper legs in time for the more important NESCAC Championships, New England Championships. Then, presumably, the team will attempt to reach their physical peak at the NCAA Championships to be held this year in Augustana, Ill. on Nov. 17.