Cross Country Sweeps Westfield Invitational

The Middlebury men’s and women’s cross country teams continued their recent string of success by securing wins in both races at this past Saturday’s Westfield State Invitational. The men and women won their respective 40- and 43- team meets by a substantial point margin. Each Middlebury runner who was counted in the scoring system for both the men’s and women’s race placed in the top 10.

The highlight of the Middlebury men’s performance was a first place finish out of a 429-man field for senior captain Jack Davies ’13, with a time of 25:40.96 for the eight-kilometer race. Davies’s win was followed by third, fourth and fifth place finishes by Panther runners Nate Sans ’ 14, Patrick Hebble ’13 and Kevin Wood ’15, respectively. None of the other Division I, II or III teams came close to Middlebury’s final score.
The Panthers team win was followed by two NESCAC second and third place finishes by Amherst and Connecticut College, respectively.

The Middlebury women’s race was highlighted by a second place finish from senior racer Addie Tousley ’13 in the 453-woman race. Tousley finished the six-kilometer run with a time of 21:50.61, roughly 20 seconds behind Amherst runner Keri Lambert. Tousley’s finish was complemented with top-10 finishes from Katie Rominger ‘14, Emily Atwood ’13, Sarah Guth ’15 and Allison Maxwell ’15.

The win comes days after the Middlebury women’s team was ranked third nationally in Divison III, behind Williams and MIT in the most recent United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Poll.

Tousley’s second place finish comes a week after she sat out of the Vermont State Meet, and two weeks after her first place finish at the Purple Valley Classic. The week of rest was designed to put Tousley in a good position for upcoming meets. The program as a whole benefits from the example of the older runners.

“It seems as though the men’s success can significantly be attributed to upperclassmen strength and leadership as four of Middlebury’s five top 10 finishes came from upperclassmen runners,” Tousley said.
Likewise, the Middlebury women had three upperclassmen out of their five top 10 finishers.

The Panthers will race again this Saturday at the St. Michael’s Invitational in Colchester, Vt. The meet is the last that both the women’s and men’s teams will race before the NESCAC championship at Bowdoin College on Oct. 27.