This past Saturday, Nov. 14 the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the NCAA Regional Championship at Connecticut College, racing at Harkness Memorial State Park. The women’s team secured a third place finish among 56 teams, while the men’s team finished sixth of 55 teams. The women automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship this coming weekend, while the men were awarded an at-large bid on Sunday, Nov. 15. The NCAA awards 16 men’s and women’s teams the automatic qualification, and selects 16 more teams for the at-large bid.
On the women’s side, Abigail Nadler ’19 continued her great first season, bringing in the Middlebury top five in fifth place out of 390 racers. Adrian Walsh ’16 (19), Katherine Tercek ’16 (23), Erzie Nagy ’17 (26) and Emma DeCamp ’17 (35) followed Nadler.
“The regional race was a big improvement for our team from NESCACs,” Nadler said. “Everything is coming together at the right time and we’re ready
to reach another level at nationals." These five places brought the Middlebury women’s team score to 108 points, just a single point behind second place Tufts, who followed Williams overall. Placing in the top 35 earned all five scorers All New England honors. “Individually, it is hard for me to specially salute any one particular person that had a great race as I think they all did, which led to how well we did,” Head Coach Nicole Wilkerson said. “It is such a collective effort and I was incredibly pleased with how the women performed. We are excited for next weekend and will look for stiff competition from Williams, John Hopkins, MIT, Tufts and St. Lawrence.” The men were led by Sebastian Matt ’16, who finished in 13th place in a field of 380 competitors. Brian Rich ’17 (15), Chony Aispuro ’18 (21), Sam Klocken- kemper ’17 (57) and Sam Cartwright ’16 (62) followed him.
“Everything came together at the right time,” Matt said. “Our top three runners all ran their fastest 8k’s on a super windy day ... we’re peaking at the right time and are ready for nationals. I’ve never been excited to go to Wisconsin until now.”
Wilkerson also paid tribute to the men’s performance.
“The last 1k of the race was critical because both Sam Cartwright and Klockenkemper passed at least 10 people and snuck us into 6th place,” Wilkerson said. “It was nerve racking waiting for the NCAA Committee to decide if Midd would get a bid to compete but I was really glad when we heard that we were selected. With the men going to NCAA’s, it makes it the 6th year in a row that we have been competing at NCAA’s. Prior to six years ago, the men’s team has never qualified even once so the streak we cur- rently have going is pretty important and remarkable.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will travel to Winneconne, Wis. next weekend where they will compete in the NCAA Championship hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at the Lake Breeze Golf Club. The teams race on Saturday, Nov. 21, with the women beginning at noon and the men going off at 1:20 p.m.
