The men placed sixth while the women came in third; however, the top few runners from each team did not compete at ECACs in order to gear up for Regionals this Saturday.
Men's Cross Country
The men earned 194 points to secure sixth place among a field of over 30 competitive Div. III teams. The Tufts Jumbos took home the win on its home course with 70 points, edging out second-place finisher Williams College by a 12-point margin. NESCAC rival Middlebury College rounded out the top five with 170 points.
The Jeffs ran without some of their fastest runners, as senior co-captains Matt Katz and Dave Molina, in addition to Tomas Morrissey '08, Richard Wilson '07 and Jack Morgan '05, sat out in preparation for Regionals.
Nate Freese '07 led the men, finishing 21st with a time of 27:59 on the 8K course. Despite being held back for much of the season due to an injury, Dave Schreiner '06 took 41st, finishing in 28:30.
Mike Harbus '08 and John Babbott '07 came in just seconds later, finishing 44th and 46th, respectively. Evan Guiney '06 completed the scoring for the team with his 56th-place finish. Fraser Kitchell '07 and Cooper Knowlton '07 took 73rd and 87th, respectively.
Head Coach Erik Nedeau feels optimistic about the men's chances to qualify for Nationals this weekend. "The men, as we have talked about all season, know that making the return trip to NCAAs is a long shot, but if they can all put together their best races, then it could be a possibility," he said.
Regardless of whether they make the cut, the men just want to challenge the other teams as much as possible next weekend. "Rather than looking ahead to the NCAA meet, we just want to go out there and race our best. In comparing this year's team to last year's, they seem to be comparable, but the big difference is the strength of other teams seems to be a bit greater," said Nedeau. "We will go out there and race it as if it is our last race and if we are going to get beat, I am certain that the guys are going to make the other teams race their best to be able to beat them."
Women's Cross Country
The women captured third place at the meet with 95 points, behind Williams and Middlebury, the top two Div. III teams in the current national poll. The Amherst women have dropped to fifth in the nation among Division III teams. All-Americans Carter Hamill '05 and Shauneen Garrahan '07, as well as top harriers Kim Partee '08 and Ginger Polich '07 did not compete at ECACs in order to be ready for this weekend.
First-years Katie Moravec and Laura Mortimer led the team with their outstanding 10th and 14th place finishes, which qualified both for All-ECAC honors. Both completed the 6K course in well under 24 minutes. Margaret Davis '06 and Co-captain Alison Rodriguez '05 crossed the finish line within seconds of each other, grabbing 23rd and 26th places, respectively. Meg Ray '08 rounded out the scoring runners by taking 31st. First-years Heather Wilson and Lucy Sheehan also ran well with their 44th and 58th place finishes.
Nedeau was generally very pleased with the women's showing at ECACs. "We had some very good performances from the team. Most people ran considerably faster than they had run on the same course earlier in the year, which is always a nice thing to see," said Nedeau.
The key for the team remains to keep working on their goal of catching up to the top two Div. III teams in the nation. "The women still have to close up the gap a lot on Middlebury and Williams, as they are very deep teams and have a bunch of girls in front of our scoring runners, but this weekend at Regionals and then at Nationals, they can only run seven and that is all that we will worry about," Nedeau said.
The team is optimistic about their chances next weekend. "[If] people step up, then anything can happen," said Nedeau. "We will certainly head into Districts [Regionals] and hopefully Nationals without the pressure of a top two or three NCAA ranking and once we are there, then maybe we can be that team that goes a little crazy and rises to the challenge."
The men's and women's teams will take a shot at qualifying for Nationals on Saturday at the NCAA Div. III Regionals held at the Twin Brook Recreation Center in Cumberland, Maine. At last year's Regionals, both teams finished fourth and managed to qualify for Nationals. This year Nationals will be held at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Saturday, Nov. 20.