But, this was the story this past weekend, when the Amherst runners won the team gold at the Codfish Bowl at Boston's Franklin Park. All told, the Jeff women scored a total of 76 points, carrying them over second-place Brandeis University's 81 points and third-place finisher Northern Colorado University's 106.
It's also not often that a team full of such established runners as Amherst's finds itself being led by a rookie.
But, this was also the story this past weekend. For the second week in a row, Amherst was led by Carter Hamill '05, who came in ninth place with a time of 19:03. Hamill, who has visibly run with more confidence each week, had to settle for the ninth place after misjudging the finish line by about 200 meters. "I wasn't exactly sure where it was, but I was pretty tired so I thought, 'eh, this looks good'," said Hamill.
Emily Lobsenz '02 finished 23 seconds behind Hamill in 13th place. Lobsenz's finish was just two seconds ahead that of Diana Rancourt '02. Rancourt, who has only recently been reinstated to the Jeff roster, has been improving each race, and her display this weekend proved that Rancourt has the talent to run with anybody in the field. Following the end of Rancourt's day, several Jeffs crossed the line in a pack. Becca Woo '02, Alison Dimon '03, Molly Burnett '02 and Alison Rodriguez '05 were the next four Amherst runners to cross the line, finishing within 20 seconds of one another in 18th, 21st, 27th and 28th places, respectively. "I was running with this girl from Wesleyan [University] for the first half whose hair smelled like coffee beans," said Dimon. "I hate coffee. That motivated me to run faster for the second half."
Several key Jeff runners did not factor into the scoring the way they should in a couple of months. Hilary Plum '03, a transfer student from Wesleyan, was contending with the top runners in the region last year in cross country and track and has been running well in workouts this season, but, due to the nature of her training after a summer of injury, she has yet to race up to her potential. Burnett is also expected to be a front-runner for the Jeffs in the second half of the season.
"I think we were very fortunate to come away with the win, because I don't think that we performed nearly as well as we are capable of," said Head Coach Erik Nedeau. "The win is a testament to how strong and how deep we are, but if the team wants to be a national contender, then we are going to need to have some of the upperclass runners step it up on race day. We have several people who can be front-runners on this team, and it is important for them to start doing that."
The Jeffs will decrease their mileage substantially in practice this week. This is partly to help those who are injured or getting run down from the last month of training. The week will also allow the Jeff women to see where they stand in terms of conditioning when they head to Grafton on Saturday for the Tufts University Invite.