Women
The women raced first, taking off from the starting line with a natural race-day intensity. The Springfield College, Wheaton College and Amherst runners quickly settled into their rhythm. Giving a strong performance in her first race of the season, tri-captain Sophia Galleher ’10 led Springfield College’s top runner, Amanda DiPaolo, for the first mile and a half. Though she relinquished the lead by the end, maintaining her form and concentration, Galleher crossed the line as second overall with a time of 19:50. She and DiPaolo both dipped below the 20-minute mark — a very impressive feat for the first race of the season.
Several Jeffs followed close behind Galleher, as Amherst claimed seven out of the top 10 spots, and 10 of the top 13. Hallie Schwab ’11 finished in 20:09, taking third place overall. Taking fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth place were tri-captain Christina Wong ’11, Mercedes Taylor ’11, Ali Simeone ’13, Elodie Reed ’13 and Sarah Daly ’13, respectively. This core group of high-placing finishers helped secure 23 points for Amherst, which gave the Jeffs a victory over Springfield (38 points) and Wheaton (79).
Taylor, who took sixth place in the race with a time of 20:20, was very pleased with the outcome of Saturday’s race. “I was happy with my race — I’m in much better shape this year, and I improved my time by a minute and a half from this same race last year,” said Taylor after the invitational. “But what’s important is where the team is at this point in the season. I am really pumped about the girls’ team performance. We have a strong front group of upperclassmen, but there are three to four freshmen who have been coming in right behind us, which is going to be key.”
Based on the margin of victory in last Saturday’s race, it’s easy to see that the women’s team will be setting some very high goals this season. “Our top seven times from Saturday are in the ballpark of what the top seven women ran at this course two years ago when we won Nationals, which is a great sign,” added Taylor.
Men
The men also set a dominant tone for their season, defeating Wheaton College 15 points to 50. Amherst sent nine runners through the finishing chute before the top Wheaton runner claimed 10th place, and five Jeffs broke the 17-minute mark. Junior and overall winner Will Yochum ’11 even managed to cross the line in under 16 minutes, finishing in 15:59 — nearly a minute and a half ahead of the first Wheaton runner.
Tri-captain Carlyle Eubank ’10 was the second runner to finish, posting an impressive time of 16:37. “I was very pleased with the team’s performance on Saturday,” Eubank reflected afterward. “We have all been running quite a bit of mileage lately, and it was great to see some good performances and times in spite of tired legs.”
On Yochum’s dominating performance, Eubank added, “Yochum ran incredibly well, and you can rest assured that his performances will continue to impress.”
The next three finishers following Yochum and Eubank helped Amherst earn the minimum number of points possible by sweeping the top-five spots. Tri-captain Daniel Murner ’10 took third place in 16:44, and Kit Callahan ’10 and Travis Cohoon ’11 followed roughly 10 seconds later.
With this winning start to their season, the Jeffs will now be looking for another successful race day at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst next Saturday.