Women
For the women, Little Threes were business as usual. Amherst won the meet easily, beating nationally ranked Williams for the fourth time in as many tries this year. The Jeffs, who have yet to lose to a Div. III team this season, dominated the meet to claim five of the top seven spots and seven of the top 12.
Going into the race, coach Erik "Ned" Nedeau instructed the women to keep at least five runners with Williams's second runner through the first two miles (Wesleyan was not expected to be a factor). The Jeffs executed the strategy successfully, and four of the five who stayed with her remained close together and finished within seven seconds of the Williams runner. The fifth Amherst frontrunner was senior co-captain Heather Wilson, who made a late move and was ultimately able to kick down Williams leader Rachel Asher to win the race by an impressive six seconds.
Following Wilson for Amherst were junior Elise Tropiano in third and Meg Ray '08, Caitlin McDermott-Murphy '09 and senior co-captain Kim Partee in fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. The performance of those five alone would have locked up the meet for the Jeffs, but sophomore Sophia Galleher and first-year Kristen Ballinger piled on by displacing opposing runners with 10th- and 12th-place finishes, respectively.
Despite the top-10 finish, Galleher's performance was not up to her usual standard. The meet marked the first time this season that she has finished outside the scoring for Amherst. Galleher likes to start fast and build an early lead, but was unable to do so this week because she had been instructed to hang back with Williams' second runner.
By contrast, the race represented Ballinger's first time this year finishing in the top seven for Amherst. For the upcoming Regional and National Championships, each team may only start seven runners; therefore, as the regular season comes to an end, teams are trying to identify who will ultimately comprise that group.
For Amherst this year, Wilson, Tropiano, Galleher, McDermott-Murphy and Partee have scored consistently and are likely to make the cut. Ray has also had several strong finishes and is a strong candidate for the sixth spot, but the seventh is less clear. Senior Katie Moravec started the season strong but has faded recently. Nicole Anderson '09 and Laura Mortimer '08 have also cracked the top seven in several races and would make viable candidates. Ballinger has now thrown her hat into the ring. However, Moravec should be considered the favorite for the spot, as she helped the team to a second-place finish at Nationals last year.
The competition for the seventh spot arises from Amherst's incredible depth and is a nice problem to have going into the postseason. The decision will be finalized in the next two weeks, as the Jeffs send their top 12 harriers to Williams for the NESCAC Championships on Saturday, and then send seven-likely those whose status for Regionals is still unsure-to the ECAC Championships the next week.
Men
The men, who have yet to have all of their best harriers run well in the same race this year, finished a close second to Williams, who has now won the last 20 Little Three Championships, and 36 out of the last 38. The Jeffs claimed five of the top 12 spots, but were edged by top-ranked Williams, who claimed the other seven. Wesleyan's Sean Watson, who many observers thought could play a spoiler role and displace some scorers for Amherst or Williams, came in 13th and failed to be a factor on the day. "We were disappointed that we didn't beat Williams, but it was a decent performance," said Peter Foote '09.
Amherst was led by first-year phenom Will Yochum, who earned NESCAC Performer of the Week honors for his second-place finish. Edgar Kogsey of Williams edged Yochum by just two seconds to win the race, and Yochum beat the third place finisher by almost 12 seconds.
Second for Amherst was sophomore Daniel Murner, who bounced back from a sub-par race at Open New Englands to place fourth overall. Rookie Florian Reichert was next in sixth place, and sophomores Eric Holaday and Carlyle Eubank completed the Jeffs' scoring, finishing ninth and 12th, respectively.
All five of the Jeffs' scorers were underclassmen. This may bode well for the future, but Amherst would have liked senior captain Mike Harbus, who has been among their top three most of the season, to have had a better race. Harbus finished eighth for Amherst, and 24th overall, but the team knows he is capable of doing better. "We feel that we have room to improve," said Foote. "We're excited to continue to push to be the best team in the region."
First-year Ben Mears and sophomore Jimmy Swanson finished sixth and seventh for Amherst, respectively, further complicating an already-muddled picture in the fight for the seven spots at Regionals. Along with Mears and Swanson, Harbus and the five scorers of last week, junior Peter Foote has scored in several races. As the men head to NESCACs, Harbus, Yochum, Reichert, Holaday and Eubank are likely to make the team for Regionals, while the other two spots are relatively up for grabs.
"About six people are pretty much locked in," said Foote." Who the seventh person and the alternate for Regionals will be is going to depend on the next two races, ECACs in particular."