On Saturday, Sept. 20, the Middlebury cross country teams hosted the Aldrich Invitational for their second meet of the year. Traditionally a low-key meet, this year’s edition had stiffer competition: NESCAC rivals Colby and Hamilton made the trip to see the course in anticipation of the NESCAC Championship meet hosted by Middlebury on Nov. 1. Still, both Middlebury teams finished the day victorious, with the women recording a perfect score of 15 points and the men scoring 30.
The women kicked off the day with an impressive performance, sweeping the top six places and taking 10 of the top 15.
Katie Carlson ’15 continued her strong season, winning the five kilometer race with a time of 18:49. Eleven seconds behind her came the pack of Panthers: Alison Maxwell ’15, Summer Spillane ’15, Addis Fouche-Channer ’17, Adrian Walsh ’16 and Sarah Guth ’15 all finished within 10 seconds of one another to take spots two through six and seal the deal on a Panther victory.
Assistant Coach Jack Davies commented on the pack mentality of his runners in the race.
“With the team so collectively strong, they wound up running most of the race in large packs anyways,” Davies said.
The women demonstrated that their depth that can be lethal in large championship races. Finishing well behind the Panthers were Division-II Saint Michael’s College with 76 points, Colby with 79 points and Hamilton with 85 points.
After the women’s strong showing, it was time for the men to try to hold pace.
Kevin Wood ’15 took home the win, finishing the eight kilometer race with a time of 26:08. Behind Wood was Wilder Schaaf ’14.5, who secured second place for the Panthers with a time of 26:42. The next Middlebury man across the line was Jake Fox ’15, taking sixth in a time of 27:06.
Brian Rich ’17 and Sebastian Matt ’16 each finished within 10 seconds of Fox, closing out the scoring with eighth and 13th-place finishes.
“We felt we were ready to really open it up for the first time this season,” Davies said. “We had some strong intra-conference competition in Colby and Hamilton, and we never want to get shown up on our home course.”
The men were not shown up by their fellow NESCAC schools: Colby finished second with 47 points and Hamilton third with 72 points.
Despite the increased competition at this year’s Aldrich Invite, several athletes on each team did not race.
Davies explained this decision.
“The Aldrich Invitational is still an early season race, and we did hold a number of runners out this weekend,” he said. “As we near our peak training weeks, it’s not uncommon for our athletes to feel a little banged up, and the cold weather last week definitely had a few kids feeling a little under the weather. Racing places a ridiculous amount of stress on the body, and we figured it was better to rest some people this weekend and have them ready to go during the championship season, rather than the other way around.”
The teams travel Williamstown, MA next weekend to race in the Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams – a preview of this year’s NCAA Regional course. As Davies says, the teams are excited for the challenge and are looking forward to a fast race.
“Almost every regional contender will be there this weekend,” he said. “It’s our first real large-scale test of the season, and we’ll be looking for a strong showing.”
