At the Little Three Championships hosted by Williams College on Saturday, the goal of the cross country team, surprisingly enough, was not to win. In line with the emphasis on teamwork and confidence-building that has been a trend for the team this season, Head Coach Erik Nedeau employed a strategy of pack racing for both the men's and women's teams that helped several runners achieve their best races of the season. Although the women came in second and the men finished third, the race helped to establish a foundation of cooperation that will serve the team well as they head towards the conference and district meets.

Nedeau's strategy of pack racing seemed to be disconcerting for the Ephs, to say the least. An article about the race that appeared in The Williams Record noted that Amherst "tends to use confusing race strategies." One Eph admitted that she was "surprised at the odd tactics used by Amherst runners during the race." The more the Ephs feel lost in the dark, the better the prospects for Amherst at this season's big meets.

Women

Though she ran with the pack for the first part of the race, co-captain All-American Shauneen Garrahan '07 picked up the pace to take second with a time of 18:02. The four other scorers for Amherst, Kim Partee '08, Nicole Anderson '09, Caitlin McDermott-Murphy '09 and Heather Wilson '08, all crossed the finish line together in 19:22, grabbing 13th through 16th places, respectively. Right behind them were Liz Dalton '09 and Meg Ray '08, who finished 17th and 18th, respectively.

Nedeau pointed to breakthrough races from Dalton and McDermott-Murphy as reasons why the pack racing strategy was successful. "Caitlin and Liz each raced great; in fact they had their best races of the season," he said. "They stayed in the front pack throughout the race, and I think that will pay off big time for them."

Nedeau sees his strategy paying off in the squad's impressive strength and depth. "We have a lot of racers who are having great workouts but not taking the confidence of those workouts with them to their races," he said. "They are capable of running with everyone on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and now they need to believe that Saturday races are merely an extension of that."

Men

The top five scorers for the men all crossed the finish line together, snatching 14th through 18th place. Rich Wilson '07 led the pack and posted a time of 27:02, followed by junior Cooper Knowlton, also with a time of 27:02, and Harrison Lakehomer '09, co-captain Dave Schreiner '06, and Tomas Morrissey '08, all with a time of 27:03. They were closely followed by Nate Freese '07, in 21st place with a time of 27:09. Rob Boley '07 took 31st place with a time of 27:35 and rounded out the top seven.

"The men looked great," said Nedeau. "We got great races from a couple of the guys who had been off of our front pack this season, and I think that will serve as a big confidence builder as we head towards our conference and district meets."

Both teams return to action on Saturday for the NESCAC Championships at Wesleyan University.