Cross Country Teams Qualify for NCAA Championships

The Middlebury men’s and women’s cross country teams continued their streak of success this season, with the Panther men taking first and the Panther women taking third at the NCAA Regional Final this past Saturday, Nov. 10, at Westfield State University.

The men were able to edge out the 49 other teams, including fellow NESCAC competitors Bowdoin and Bates, for their first NCAA Regional title with a score of 91 points. Due to difficulties computing the final team scores the men learned that they had won only once they were in line to accept individual awards.

“It was very cool to be with your team and get surpised with that together,” said men’s team co-captain Jack Davies ’13.

The Middlebury women, meanwhile, placed right behind MIT and NESCAC rival Williams in the 51-team field, with a score of 89 points.

Davies, who placed third in a nail-biting finish with a time of 24:51.56 in the  eight kilometer race, led the men. Davies finished just 20 milliseconds after first-place finisher Coby Horowitz of Bowdoin and nine milliseconds after second-place finisher Samuel Seekins of Bowdoin as well. While Bowdoin took the top two spots in the race, Davies’ performance was followed up by a team-wide effort with Nate Sans ’14, co-captain Patrick Hebble ’13, Kevin Wood ’15 and Greg Krathwohl ’14 finishing in 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th  places, respectively. These strong efforts were crucial in allowing Middlebury to secure the top spot with the lowest amount of cumulative points of the entire field.

“It shows we’re a deep, well-rounded team,” Davies said. “Our two, three, four and five runners finished right together.  It shows that we work with each other, it’s evidence of our training with each other all year and shows that we have confidence in one another.”

Addie Tousley ’13 led the Middlebury women by finishing second in the 361-women’s 6K race, with a time of 21:07.13. Tousley finished closely behind Amherst racer Keri Lambert who placed first with a time of 20:48.94. Tousley’s performance was complemented by a 13th place finish from Lucy Whipps ’15, and 21st, 24th, 29th and 30th-place finishes from Emily Attwood ’14, Sarah Guth ’15, Alison Maxwell ’15 and Katie Rominger ’14, respectively.

Each of the top-five Panther men racers and the top-six Panther women’s racers earned All-New England Honors for finishing in the top-35 finishes in the race.

Women’s tri-captain Juliet Ryan-Davis ’13 commented on the team’s level of excitement heading into the NCAA championships.

“This is an exciting opportunity for both the men’s and women’s teams,” said Ryan-Davis. “Making it to NCAA’s in such good standing within the New England region is a huge accomplishment already. Our teams have been focusing all season long on tightening the gap between every runner. Now it’s just a matter of putting it all out there and seeing what we can do.”

The strong finishes from both Panther teams secured spots for the two squads in this weekends NCAA championship. Middlebury will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana this coming Saturday to compete against 31 other teams and 56 individual qualifiers from around the nation in hopes of winning a national championship.