"The men had a bit of an off day, and it was unfortunate to have that happen to us at the conference meet as I thought we were ready for a big race," said coach Erik Nedeau. "However, the women raced very well, and I was very pleased with the proximity of where we were in relation to Williams and to the teams behind us."
Women
As usual, Garrahan paced the women, posting a second-place finish with a time of 17:57, a slender three seconds behind Williams' race-winner, Caroline Cretti. Anderson and sophomore Heather Wilson were the next Amherst runners, snatching eighth and ninth place with times of 18:29 and 18:30, respectively. Partee followed in 14th place with a time of 18:47 and rookie Caitlin McDermott-Murphy rounded out the scoring in 23rd place with a time of 19:09. Sophomores Meg Ray and Laura Mortimer topped off the varsity seven in 36th and 40th place, respectively.
The excellent postings belied the toughness of the course. "I would rather take a biopsych exam than run up that hill again," said Mortimer. "But I think the women's team did incredibly well."
The Amherst men were also impressed by the women's success. "The women dominated the NESCACs again this year," said Richard Wilson '07.
Nedeau couldn't help but look ahead, "We raced aggressively and put ourselves in a good position early on. We have the best conference in the country, and so doing well here bodes well for us later," he said. "We showed a lot of character today. For the first time this year we raced as though we believed we were as good as any team out there, and I'm looking forward to seeing things continue in the next few weeks."
Men
Sophomore Tomas Morrissey led the Amherst men, posting an 11th-place finish with a time of 26:31. He was followed by Wilson in 28th place with a time of 26:42, while first-year standout Harrison Lakehomer finished on his heels in 26:50, snatching a 35th-place finish. Senior co-captain Dave Schreiner and Mike Harbus '08 nabbed 48th and 53rd places, respectively, to round out the scoring.
The men's team seemed disappointed about the race but upbeat about the future. "This was a bad race for the men's team," said Schreiner. "But we expect a much better performance at the district race in two weeks."
Wilson agreed that the men's true talent wasn't evident. "We had our most unsatisfactory race so far, but had we run even an average race we would have moved up at least three places," he said. "That should give us a bit of confidence going into the gut check part of the season."
Next up for both teams are the ECAC Championships on Saturday at Connecticut College.