Women's Cross Country
Going into the year, the Jeffs knew they had the talent to compete with Williams, and on Saturday they were determined not to squander a golden opportunity to outrun Williams in a rare home appearance.
Senior co-captain Helen Dole described the team's pre-race mindset. "Our team was very focused going into Saturday's race," she said. "We knew everyone needed to race hard for us to have a chance at beating Williams, and that's exactly what we did."
New England Championship winner Venti finished first overall and set a new course record.
"Aly broke free from everyone in the third mile and cruised to a new course record time of 18:15," said Head Coach Erik Nedeau.
On Venti's heels throughout the race was first-year harrier Shauneen Garrahan, who ran a time of 18:22.1, capturing second place overall finish out of the more than 50 runners in the field.
Continuing her come-back from an early season injury, junior All-American Carter Hamill finished fifth overall. Sophomore Margaret Davis finished fourth for the team in an eighth place overall finish, just three runners behind Hamill. Rounding out the scoring varsity runners was co-captain Erinn White '04, who took 13th place.
Sophomore Ginger Polich took the Jeffs' sixth place finish with a placing of 16th overall. Dole placed 19th overall to round out the varsity group.
This was the second time the Jeffs competed on their home course this season, and the women used this to their advantage. "The vast majority of us ran faster on the course than we did at the Amherst Invite in September," said Dole.
Many Amherst runners, including White and Garrahan, improved their times by over a minute.
The women are pleased with their performance in Saturday's race. "It felt great to win the Little Three Championship," said Dole, "but we are really looking at it as a stepping stone and confidence builder towards even better finishes as the championship season progresses."
Men's Cross Country
The Jeffs went into the meet planning on finally upsetting Williams' 15-year Little Three winning streak. However, despite a well-run race, the men fell just short of this goal.
Co-captain junior Michael Page led the team with a time of 26:49.1, good for second overall in a field of more than 60 men. The overall first-place winner was Eph Neal Holtschulte, who came in more than 20 seconds before Page.
Matthew Katz '05 followed Page by less than eight seconds to finish fourth overall. Co-captain John Stanton-Geddes '04 came in third for the team. With a time of 27:26.1, he earned a seventh place overall finish. Jack Morgan '05 was the next Jeff to cross the finish line, taking tenth place overall. Junior Dave Molina was the fifth and final scoring Jeff to finish, coming in 13th place overall.
The varsity seven was rounded out by sophomore Dave Schreiner and freshman Brandt Tullis, who finished 16th and 26th, respectively.
"The men's performance at Little Threes proved [two] things: one, when Jack Morgan and Michael Page are running well, we are one of the best teams in New England; two, when you mark your home poorly enough, the other team is likely to get lost," said Katz.
Katz continued, explaining that "several Williams runners ran off course in the last mile of the race, costing them a few seconds each."
Nevertheless, one Amherst man continued his drastic improvements. Sophomore Billy McNitt keeps proving to the team that he will soon be among the team's top runners. "Billy McNitt had another awesome race as he raced to his best Amherst course time and improved about 20 places from last year's finish," said Coach Nedeau.
The men were disappointed not only by their loss, but also by the poor fan turnout. Wesleyan and Williams both seemed to have more fans at the meet even though Amherst was at home.
Despite the men's disappointing overall finish, Coach Nedeau is optimistic. "The finish was the closest that it has been in the last few years, and hopefully next year the results will be different."
On Saturday, Nov. 1, the Jeffs travel to Middlebury College to compete in the NESCAC championship.