The men's and women's cross country teams sent their second seven runners to the ECAC Championships in Williamstown, Mass., this Saturday, and rested their top seven runners in preparation for next week's NCAA Regional Championships. Since most teams do not send their top harriers to ECACs, the meet's primary purpose is to give developing runners experience; this year, it also helped Amherst to decide who will be the alternate for Regionals.

Men

Jimmy Swanson '10 finished 19th in the meet, followed by Peter Foote '09, who finished 29th after a long hiatus due to illness. Swanson and Foote led the Amherst men to sixth place overall. "Although we didn't place as highly as we would have liked as a team, I think we all had solid individual efforts on Saturday," explained Swanson. "[We] showed everyone that we have tremendous depth as a team."

Swanson has been improving all year and his performance at ECACs made him an easy choice for the alternate spot at the NCAA Regionals. "I was extremely disappointed that I didn't make the top seven at NESCACs, so I was determined not to lose the alternate spot," he said, referring to last week's NESCAC Championships that Head Coach Erik Nedeau used to settle on a top seven.

Women

The Amherst women suffered their first loss of the year to a Div. III team. Nevertheless, they were still impressive, taking three of the top five spots at the meet. Katie Moravec '08 won the race, with a time of 23:03 for the 6,000-meter race, edging out Kristen Ballinger '11 by less than a second. After the race, Ballinger was very complimentary of Moravec, saying, "I really admire her guts in leading for the entire race." Moravec was honored as NESCAC Performer of the Week for her win at the ECAC Championships.

Though Moravec finished ahead of Ballinger, Nedeau surprised the team in naming Ballinger the alternate. Moravec began the year with a pair of impressive finishes, but prior to last weekend, had been out of the scoring for Amherst since the Sept. 22 Purple Valley Classic. Ballinger, meanwhile, recovered from an early injury to close the season strong, and had beaten Moravec in back-to-back races coming into ECACs. Though the alternate does not run unless one of the top seven cannot race, she will travel and train with the team.

Even Ballinger thought Moravec deserved the honor. "I think that a senior who has contributed to the team for four years should cumulatively have earned a place on the championship team," she said. However, Nedeau has a history of helping younger runners gain experience rather than honoring veterans. Last year, he gave the seventh spot at ECACs to then-first-year Carlyle Eubank over Richard Wilson '07, even though Wilson outran Eubank in the open race at NESCACs. The decision seemed strange at the time, but Eubank excelled at ECACs and has built on that experience this year to become one of the Jeffs' most consistent runners.

Jeffs Dominate All-Conference Team

Amherst led all schools by earning 10 of the 32 NESCAC All-Conference Awards, announced last week. On the men's side, Will Yochum '11 surprised no one by being named Rookie of the Year. He was the only first-year to earn All-Conference honors, garnering a spot on the NESCAC First Team.

For the women, six of Amherst's top seven runners were honored. Co-captain Heather Wilson '08 won Most Outstanding Performer and joined co-captain Kim Partee '08 and Elise Tropiano '09 on the First Team. Juniors Nicole Anderson and Caitlin McDermott-Murphy and senior Meg Ray all made the second team. Nedeau rounded out the honors on the women's side, as he won Coach of the Year for the third time in six seasons.