Cross Country Teams Win Automatic NCAA Bids

On Saturday, Nov. 16 the cross country teams were in Gorham, Maine running in the NCAA New England Regional Championships. The results of the regional meet would determine participants in the following week’s NCAA Division III National Championships. Specifically, the top two finishing teams in each gender would get automatic bids to the national meet, while every other team would be entered into the at-large pool from which 16 teams from around the country would be selected. Both teams, however, avoided the at-large process by securing second place finishes and punching their tickets to Indiana.

In front of a crowd of teammates whose seasons were finished and alumni making the trek to Maine, the women began the day by scoring 57 points for their second place finish. Williams, which the Panthers had soundly beaten two weeks previous at the NESCAC Championships, finished first with 44 points. The Ephs and Panthers showed that they were the class of the field, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology finishing third with 127 points.

As was the case at NESCACs, the women were led by rookie Erzsie Nagy ’17 and Alison Maxwell ’15. Nagy captured a fourth-place finish in her first regional meet with a time of 21:27. Maxwell finished a second later to capture fifth. Twenty seconds behind Nagy and Maxwell came the patented Middlebury “blob” comprised of Emily Singer ’14 (who lost a shoe 200 meters into the race), Katherine Tercek ’16 and Sarah Guth ’15 for 15th through 17th-place finishes, respectively. The blob completed the scoring runners for the women, but Williams had placed a pack of their own slightly ahead, which proved to be enough to seal the victory even though their fifth runner had yet to cross when Guth finished. Katie Rominger ’14 and Summer Spillane ’15 finished 22nd and 24th as the sixth and seventh runners on the team, which garnered them All-Region honors.

Both Tercek and coach Nicole Wilkerson attributed Williams’ success over the Panthers to the way the first mile of the six-kilometer (3.7 mile) race played out.

“Us girls, we usually run as a blob,” Wilkerson said.

“It was difficult at regionals to do this because the field was so big and the course was pretty curvy. We struggled getting to the head of the pack as a blob at the beginning of the race which put us at a bit of a disadvantage to Williams,” Tercek said.

From the sideline, Wilkerson saw the same thing.

“I told the women to get off the line quickly but since the course was wide for the first mile, we did not have to be too aggressive across the field,” she said. “What I did not take into account was that there were three turns in that first mile and we just got bottle necked and could not move.  I saw [Tercek] at about 1k into it and she just had no place to move. Williams popped a better first mile and although we were making up ground on them, we just ran out of real estate.”

After the women’s strong showing, the men toed the line as reigning regional champions. They finished the day in second place with 78 points, just a single point behind NESCAC champions, Williams, and, just as in the women’s race, MIT was a distant third.

The first mile of the race went out faster than any other race the men had participated in this year, clocking in at 4:45. The men positioned themselves strongly with Greg Krathwohl ’14, Kevin Wood ’15, Nate Sans ’14 and Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 in the lead pack. Sam Craft ’14, Sebastian Matt ’16 and Luke Carpinello ’16 were positioned near each other in the chase pack, forming two distinct prides of Panthers to work with one another.

As the race progressed, the groups strung out, particularly after strong moves by Tully Hannan of Bates and Mike LeDuc — the eventual champion — of Connecticut College. Krathwohl led the Panthers across the line with an 8th-place finish in 24:53. Wood finished three seconds and two spots back of Krathwohl and was followed closely behind by Sans and Schaaf. With four runners in, the Panthers needed one more to cross the line. Matt, who ran with much passion, rounded the final corner into the home straightaway roughly 20 seconds behind Schaaf and was followed closely behind by Craft. On the homestretch, Craft unleashed his 800 meter speed and kicked past Matt and several other runners to close the book on the scoring.

Both Craft and Matt — as well as their teammates who had finished ahead of them — collected All-Region honors.
Sans talked about the team’s major unifying characteristic for the season.

“Competitive drive: not only does everyone on the team want to run well personally but they also really want the team to win,” he said. “Losing any time is tough, especially by one point, but I think that will fuel our competitive drive and next week we will be that much more determined.”

Both teams will travel to Hanover, Ind., to run in the NCAA National meet on Nov. 23. The NCAA pays for the teams to travel three days prior to the meet, which Wilkerson says will allow the team to have the highest level of preparation.

“We have a routine that we follow and a somewhat dictated professional protocol the day before the race and race day as well,” she said. “Being able to rely on that will help. They know how to channel the physical, mental, and emotional aspect of racing already and I feel like we have prepared really well for the meet.”

In terms of prospects for the meet, Wilkerson also discussed the team’s prospects for the meet.

“The men had their best race of the season and had to run hard from the gun … I think the one point loss makes us more hungry, like ravenous for next week,” she said. “For the women, Johns Hopkins is going to be tough to beat.”