Head Coach Erik Nedeau was happy with the team's performance, seeing his training regimen and the team's hard work combine for great results. "This weekend went really well for us. The focus is always on the end of the season, and at our championship meets," he said. "I feel that we are hitting these meets the way we need to be. Sometimes you need to remind people, that the focus is at this time and that is when we are going to see a big boost in our results and that has been happening."
Men
Tomas Morrissey '08 led the men's team. He blazed to a new personal and school record of 14:48.96 in the 5,000-meter run. His fourth-place finish was the top men's finish of the day. While Morrissey ran in the seeded 5,000-meter heat, two other Amherst men excelled in unseeded heats. Senior Dave Schreiner ran to a new personal best, good enough for second in his heat and 10th overall. Mike Harbus '08 ran to an eighth-place finish in his heat and 22nd overall.
Junior co-captain Sam Hayman crossed the tape third in his section in 1:55.78, but just missed the finals, settling for 12th place. He also participated in the fastest distance medley relay performance of the season. Hayman, classmate John Babbott, sophomore Basile Beaty and first-year Steve Stewart combined for an 11th-place finish. The next day, the foursome ran the fastest 4x800-meter relay of the season in a blistering time of 7:54, finishing 12th. In the 500-meter run, Beaty came in 17th, with Stewart right behind him in 20th.
Women
For the women's team, the meet started off with a bang on Friday as Katie Moravec '08 left the competition in the dust as she dashed to victory in the unseeded heat of the 5,000. Breaking the 18-minute barrier, she finished 10th overall and narrowly missed the NCAA provisional qualifying time.
Following their teammate's lead, three Amherst runners excelled in the seeded 5,000-meter race, two of which made the NCAA qualifier. Sophomores Heather Wilson and Kim Partee, and first-year Nicole Anderson-fresh off of her Div. III Regional win last week-were all vying to improve their seeding for the upcoming National meet. Wilson demolished her old personal record by 30 seconds as she came in fourth in 17:16. Partee followed in seventh, also breaking a personal record. Anderson cruised in for 11th place.
Amherst had another large group in the 800-meter run, led by first-year Zandra Walton and senior co-captain Ginger Polich; both of whom snuck under the NCAA provisional mark. Walton ran to a new personal record in 2:14.5, good enough for a spot in the finals the following day. She followed up her terrific qualifier with a great race, breaking her young personal record. Polich finished in 2:16.23, yet came up short of qualifying in the finals. Behind Walton and Polich, Caitlin McDermott-Murphy '09 finished in 2:18 and junior Maria Millard in 2:21, with both posting season bests. In the 500, first-year Carly Levenson finished in 16th place.
The women's team closed the first day strong with the distance medley relay, which came in fifth place and secured an NCAA seed. The relay finished in 12:03 despite the fact that the first three legs-Walton, McDermott-Murphy and Polich-ran the 800 only an hour before. The anchor, Shauneen Garrahan '07, has returned to her typical dominating form after missing the majority of the season with an injury.
On Saturday, after Walton clinched eighth place in the 800 meter run, the same group from the distance medley relay-this time fully rested-ran an incredible 4x800, coming in third behind Div. I foes Maine University and Providence College. The women closed the day with a 13th-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay. While Millard, senior co-captain Julia Rucker, junior Hannah Campbell and Levenson just barely missed the school record, they all individually posted their fastest splits of the season.
Amherst returns to action this Friday at Yale University for the Trinity Last Chance Meet, the final opportunity to post NCAA provisional qualifiers and improve times before the next week's NCAA Div. III Nationals.