Despite brutal conditions, junior John Stanton-Geddes led Amherst with an impressive time of 25:49 over a rain-soaked course. Stanton-Geddes' 77th place finish was closely followed by sophomore Matthew Katz, who finished only 17 seconds behind his teammate. Katz's 110th place, 26:06 showing was followed by senior Carson Taylor's 26:44 running which placed him in 172nd place in the highly competitive field. Junior Andrew Schneider finished fourth for the team and 187th overall with a time of 26:52. Dave Molina '05 and Dave Schreiner '06 rounded out the top six for the team. "It was a really big field, and we did not get out fast enough," said Schreiner. "We had trouble keeping the pack in sight and never really got into the race."
Additionally, the Jeffs were missing two of their top six runners, Michael Page '05 and Zeke Phillips '05 were forced to sit out with nagging injuries. This might explain why the Jeffs were unable to continue their domination of NESCAC rivals Tufts University and Williams College after winning the Tufts Cross Country Invitational a week before.
At the Tufts Invite, Amherst had three runners in the top 10, led by Page's impressive fourth place finish in the 8,000 meter run. Stanton-Geddes and Katz followed Page and finished seventh and 10th respectively. At Tufts, all of Amherst's top five runners placed in the top 30, and cruised past Tufts and Williams for the top spot. The men's cross country team will look to dominate their NESCAC rivals once again when they compete in Little IIIs against Wesleyan University and host Williams this Saturday. The Jeffs then travel to Tufts on Nov. 2 to compete in the NESCAC Championships where they will look to improve on last year's sixth place finish.