This past weekend, the men’s and women’s cross country teams continued their foray into the postseason world of acronyms as XC traveled to R.I. for ECACs. Most of the top seven for the men and women rested, preparing for next weekend’s NCAA Regional meet, but the Lord Jeffs still fared well. The women brought back runners-up honors, while the men finished fifth.
Women
After several disappointing races, the women’s team saw ECACs as a chance to bounce back — and bounce they did. Amherst finished second in a field of 42 teams, finally running like the defending champions they are.
According to senior quad-captain Nicole Anderson, a little pre-race team bonding helped the women turn their season around. “We decided to have a mandatory film session the night before the meet,” she said. “So we all gathered in Taplin with vitamin water-hydration—the key to success—and watched ‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back.’ It was such an inspiration and so we adopted a ‘Go Team Stella’ chant for the weekend.” Anderson was the grooviest of them all, leading the Amherst women across the finish line. The Hawaiian sashayed her way to a 23:59 time on the 6-kilometer course—good enough for ninth place and All-ECAC honors.
Four Amherst runners followed Anderson in quick succession. Senior quad-captain Liz Dalton led the foursome. “At the dreaded 5-kilometer mark, I glanced back and saw three other Lord Jeffs,” she said. “I just knew we had it in us, so I shouted at the ladies, ‘Let’s groove!’ and they responded fantastically. It was a great team performance.” Dalton finished in 15th place, also earning All-ECAC honors with a time of 24:21. Eliza Schalch ’12 finished 10 seconds back in 16th while Christina Wong ’11 and Laura Zaccagnino ’12 finished within a second of each other to claim 17th and 18th, respectively. Rounding out the top seven for Amherst were Melissa Pritchard ’11 and Cate Knuff ’10.
Wong, in particular, was pleased with the team’s performance. “Although ECACs was a much less competitive race than previous ones, we finally had a good team effort,” she noted. “Every single person ran well, which was really exciting.”
Head Coach Erik Nedeau echoed her sentiments. “Overall, I was pleased with the women’s performance as a team. I felt that they raced very well,” he said. “Not just one or two, but across the board, and I think that bodes well for this coming weekend.”
Men
The men followed in the footsteps of the women, deciding a Friday night movie would be the best thing to bring the team together. “We just wanted a few laughs, you know, to let loose before the big race,” explained John “Holy” McGrail ’11. “All of us boys are really chill so we decided that ‘Superbad’ would hit the right notes and mellow us all out. Plus, I do a mean McLovin impersonation. It had the fellas rolling around in hysterics all night.”
The magic of “Superbad” made Peter Foote ’09 supergood, powering the senior tri-captain to his best race of the season. The Vermonter ran brilliantly, finishing in seventh place overall with a time of 26:45 on the 8-kilometer course. His performance earned him a place in next week’s Regionals squad. “I was close to Keene and Williams’ top guys, so hopefully I can carry momentum from this race and displace some of their guys at Regionals,” he mused. “Closing the one-through-seven gap would definitely help us, given that we often rely on our depth to carry us in big races.”
Steven Corsello ’11 was next across the line for the Jeffs, in 21st place, with a time of 27:20. Alec Jacobson ’12 had his best race of the season to finish in 48th place in 27:58. McGrail may have laughed one too many times as sickness plagued his performance. He ended the day with a 28:23, good enough for 69th place. Rounding out the top seven for Amherst were Ben Klein ’10, Ben “Iceman” Mears ’11 and Kevin Hanley ’11.
Both the men and women face do-or-die challenges this weekend at the NCAA Regional Championships on Williams College’s familiar, hilly course. The teams will need first- or second-place finishes in their respective races to guarantee a trip to Nationals. However, a third-, fourth- or fifth-place finish will likely be good enough for an at-large bid from the NCAA powers that be. Nedeau is optimistic about both teams’ chances.
“I think that the men will be battling with five or six other teams for the two automatic spots, while the women could still have a nice surprise in store for others,” he said. “We certainly are not the favorites and the target has been taken off our back. I just want them to go out and race to their best and hope that will be enough to earn a trip to Nationals.”