Cross Country Places Fifth at New Englands

 

On Saturday, Oct. 12, the Middlebury men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at historic Franklin Park in Boston to race in the N.E.I.C.A.A. Championships, colloquially known as Open New Englands. Opens invites 67 colleges in New England across all divisions and thus features a high level of competition. Additionally, the meet splits into a varsity race, where only seven athletes per team are allowed to compete, and a sub-varsity race, which has unlimited entries.

The sub-varsity races started the day and the Panthers came out roaring. On the women’s side, five athletes finished in the top 15, led by Kate Leib ’16, who had a sixth place finish. The team finished second among sub-varsity teams, behind only the University of New Hampshire and ahead of many NESCAC competitors. The men’s sub-varsity team was led by Sebastian Matt ’16, who ran his way to a tenth place finish. The men finished seventh among the sub-varsity squads.

After the morning sessions, the varsity races began. The women led off the blustery, cool New England day with a fifth place finish, ahead of all other D-III teams. Sarah Guth ’15 led the Panthers, finishing the five-kilometer race in 18:14, good for 24th place. Her finish was good enough to earn her NESCAC Performer of the Week honors. She was followed closely behind by teammates Erzsie Nagy ’17. Alison Maxwell ’15, and Katherine Tercek ’16, while Summer Spillane ’15 rounded out the scorers only 25 seconds behind Guth.

“Being named NESCAC performer of the week was a nice reminder that NESCACs is coming up,” Guth said. “Our team is looking really strong and I’m excited to see what we can do down at Connecticut College three weeks from now.”

Guth, Nagy, Maxwell and Tercek ran the first half of the race closely together as a strong pack. As is usual in large, competitive fields, the pack broke up towards the later stages of the race but the ladies were able to finish strong.

The men followed the women with a fifth place finish as well. Like the women, they were also top among D-III schools. Nate Sans ’14 led the way with a 13thplace finish, a feat that garnered him All-New England honors. Sans completed the eight-kilometer race in 24:53, the fastest time in Middlebury history at Franklin Park. Close behind were Greg Krathwohl ’14, Kevin Wood ’15 and Wilder Schaaf ’14.5, all within 25 seconds of Sans. Sam Craft ’14 crossed the line as the Panthers’ fifth man to complete the scoring.

Similar to the women’s race, the top four men worked together in the opening stages of the race. The field went out in a blazing pace for the first mile, and the Panthers were right in the mix. As the competitors spread out after their first trip up Bear Cage Hill and through their first lap of the Wilderness, Sans stuck with the chase pack, where he remained for the race. The other Panthers worked together to measure their efforts and all finished strong.

“I am very pleased with how both teams preformed,” Wilkerson said. “We are at the height of intensity and volume for the season, so for both teams to perform that well on tired legs was encouraging.”

The Panthers next travel to SUNY-Albany for the Albany Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 19 marking their final competition before the NESCAC Championships, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 2, at Connecticut College.

“Albany is a fun and fast course and the last opportunity where we get to race our full rosters,” Wilkerson said. “We get to see different competition and that is fun as well.  Looking forward to having that race to work on some team racing strategy again.”